Day 21 - Jose's News

Today we got the news that Jose could go home, and that he was released form his contract with Ulsan Tigers. He has been overjoyed all day, and has already begun packing. There's a chance we may have to leave tomorrow afternoon, depending on the timing of his flight. To celebrate, we decided to go bowling this evening just down the road. We thought we might do something else to celebrate, so we eore the small hats and suits (ish) for going out. On our way, we realised what day it was - Halowe'en! So basicaly we dressed up by accident, which is slightly odd. When we got to the Bowling alley, we found one of the wierdest bowling systems I have come across (not that I've come across many, but you get what I mean). Everyone at the alley had wristguards on, in either gold or silver, and they were all geting strikes and spares every ball. The guys next to us caled over a member of staff to tel us off for two reasons - 1, we were using their balls (fair enough), and 2, we had to wait our turn to bowl. This means that, despite the fact that we are having our own game on our own lane, we have to wait until the people in the lanes on either side have had their go, so as not to distract them. This, clearly, is far from fair enough, and made the whole game a lot more formal, and as a result a lot less fun.

After the guy who told us off had gone, a bald Korean man came along, and took it upon himself to coach Henry, giving him tips in Konglish about stance and technique. Partly as a result, Henry bowled the best game I have ever seen. HE knocked down every single pin, geting 8 spares and 3 strkies, only missing the last 2 pins, giving him a somewhat unbelievable total of 197! Jose then requested we head home as he was tired, although he then proceeded to spend about three hours on Skype, while we drank Soju in Henry's room.

Day 20 - Stunt Driving and Haircuts

Scratch that, I can hardly move today. Every part of my body is aching, thanks to Leo's thorough workout plan. Jose is better today, he cooked us his speciality salmon this morning, which was awesome. We went to get more supplies at mega market today, during which trip we became more aware of Jose's terrifying driving skills. You know the scene in Withnail and I where Richard E. Grant is swerving in and out of traffic while ...and I is asleep, and when asked what he is doing he replies "making time"? Well, it was a bit like that, so much so it prompted a discussion between Henry and Jose about the legality of undertaking in various countries. This afternoon we went for haircuts (yes, Henry, Jose and myself all went for a haircut together), to somewhere Jose knows to minimise the risk of getting a Korean mullet (I've read bad things about Korean hairdressing). They cut mine to the shortest it's been in about 5 years, I can barely tuck it behind my ears. I'm somewhat sceptical about it now, but I hope I'll learn to love it. Tomorrow we're hopefully going to Mt. Gajisan, for a hike and to see something of Ulsan. Also, Pat is almost definitely coming to Seoul on friday, so I'll spend a week with him, which'll be awesome.

Day 19 - Jose's illness, and the Gym

Jose was ill most of the day today, possibly due to an allergic reaction to Mosquito bites. He was sweating, and talking to Leo in Spanish, as well as crying on the phone, most of which he has no memory of. He's better now, but it was pretty worrying for a while. Henry and I went out to the shop just for something to do while he was upset, to give him some space, while Leo stayed behind in case he was worse off than we thought. On the upside, Jose also cooked us chicken and pasta for breakfast, which was really good. They've been drilling on the roof all day, starting at 8:30 am, which has driven Leo and I mental, as there is no escape from the noise, even though they're four floors above us. We went to the Gym earlier, which was the first time in 5 years for me. We did various free weights, then complexes and jogging, until I could take no more. Leo was advising me on the best fat burning exercises, and what to do to build muscle - I appear to have a personal trainer. It felt good, too, which I wasn't expecting. A new type of tired that I'm not used to.

Day 18 - Failures

Leo and I tried to go to a nearby temple, but were thwarted by the lack of a decent map of this city - the nearest thing we could find was a hand-drawn map that turned out to be nonsense, so we walked past the turning for ages before giving up, which wasted another afternoon. We did have some really nice sushi on the way home, which made the journey more worthwhile. When Jose returned from Seoul, we went into Ulsan to try and find a pub called the Korean Union which apparently does really good fish and chips, but that also failed, so we went to a Wa Bar, bought a pack of cards and played shithead for a while. Jose turned up later, and suggested we relocate due to the presence of some of his teammates who he really didn't want to be around.

Day 17 - Daewongam/Ulgi Park

We went to Ulgi Park, it turned out to be a hell of a lot further than Henry or I had anticipated - at least 5 km from Jose's apartment, so in total we walked at least 10km on Saturday. We climbed some rocks, walked along the beach, found a shop selling sea-knobs (can't think of another word for them) and saw everything there was to see. There are some pictures up in the ...and Ulsan album. After our walk, Henry and I were far too knackered to do anything except lie about in the flat, despite Leo's suggestions of going out on the town, although to be fair we didn't know where we were, let alone the town.

Day 16 - An Observation

Two weeks ago I was just embarking on a round-the-world trip, now I'm staying for free in a Chilean football player's apartment, rent free, without him. Which is odd...

Today we went around the Foreigner's Compound, checking out the facilities - these include an empty pool, a reasonably stocked gym, a bar with a massive pool table and the Hyundai Foreigner's School. Everything appears to be made by Hyundai - Jose's team is called Hyundai Ulsan, there is the Hyundai Hotel round the corner, next to the Hyundai Department Store, and out of the window I can see the Hyundai heavy industry shipyard, part of the biggest shipyard and docks in the world.

Tomorrow we're off to the beach, on our way to Ulgi Park. There are apparently 12 scenic sites to be seen in Ulsan, as designated by the Ulsan tourist board, and I plan to see at least a few of them before we head back to Seoul.

Pat says he's coming out to Seoul next week as well, so I'll be hanging out with him a bit as well, which'll be awesome.

Day 15 - Fives at Mike's, and Ulsan!

Last night we got a message from our friend Kate asking us all to go for a couple of beers at Mike's Cabin at half ten. We accepted, and managed to faff around packing for ages, so we eventually arrived at 11:40, a full 70 minutes late. We are rubbish.

We played fives for ages, rendering both Henry and Leo insensible, and resulting in us going to bed at 4:30, with alarms set for 9. Well done us. We got off this morning without too much trouble, apart from the fact that the other two were useless for the first few hours of the day. Our bus journey was pretty cool, it took 5 hours and we passed through some incredible scenery - even the service station had a perfectly flat lake behind it, reflecting the mountains perfectly.

Ulsan is a strange place, trapped between mountains, which means it has multiple centres - when Jose drove us to the supermarket it took ages, passing from one built-up area to another via big stretches of emptiness. Jose lives in a Foreigner's Compound here, which has its own school, gym, pool, driving range and a few other things, all of which we are going to make full use of tomorrow. He even said we could use his car, but Henry (wisely) doesn't feel too comfortable driving a left hand drive automatic around a strange city which has no street names without an international driving licence.

This place also has a beach, which I'm going to investigate tomorrow, although I don´t think sunbathing is quite on the agenda yet. Also, I may have figured out where I'll be for new year, as Kate is going to be in Northern Thailand, which sounds like fun.

Day 14 - We're on the move, and Photos!

I've had a couple of good days out, first with Henry and then with Leo. Henry's day out consisted of a trip to Itaewon and thereabouts, to go to a western supermarket for Henry, to allow him to buy some cheese, which seems to be the only thing he's really missing about home. We went for an impromptu bowl as well, I won (just).

We went along the main street in Itaewon, looking at the shops and surprisingly large number of westerners wandering about. There's also a place called 'Hooker Hill' which is fairly self-explanatory. We didn't venture up there this time. We went to Dongdaemon stadium as well to look around the market - they have done a really wierd thing there, they've paved over the grass and put in a car park, with market stalls around the edge selling loads of types of wierd crap (which I can't imagine anyone buying), while leaving the seats and grandstands intact.

We went to the mall in the Doosan building too, to get some dinner - we ordered a family meal between two, which turned out to be a load of breaded fried cutlets (pork, fish, prawn, cheese & chicken) and some kimchi-radish, miso soup, spicy spaghetti and a mushroom curry. We only made it about 3/4 of the way through it, before the sheer volume of fried food got the better of us.

Leo went off to the Irish Embassy and got his passport sorted too, meaning employment prospects are on the up. After a nap I went out to NB with Jim, Christine and Minyeong (sic), for a bit of dancing, rather against my better judgement.

Today Leo and I went to the river in the morning, originally to go to the gym, but it was a bit smoggy for exercise, so we went for a long walk instead - along the way we encountered a series of tunnels, which we wandered into, and became terrified of. They went miles under the road, and as we wandered in we came to a barrier, behind which there was loads of water, implying that these were storm drains we had wandered into. Made for some cool pictures though.

This afternoon we went to the Express Bus Terminal, as we're going to Ulsan tomorrow to stay with Jose for a while - he left today, flying down there, whereas we're getting the Express (as opposed to deluxe) bus, for only 19,700 won, about £11 for a 4:30 journey. We went to a foreign language bookstore today, and between us Leo and I bought the Selected Writings of Rene Descartes, Crime and Punishment, Dune, The Postman, and Time Enough for Love by R. A. Heinlein. A good selection of Sci-Fi and intellectual stuff. All of this means we now have to pack and leave, as we're off at 10 am tomorrow.

Also, I've added my facebook albums to the blog, they should appear to the left.

End of Osaka and our Tandem Trip Crabs, Palace, and nights out Tunnels and Cityscapes

Day 12 - Transformers

Since the last entry, the only thing that has transpired is that we went to the CGV IMAX to watch Transformers on the unbelievably massive screen. It was entirely worth the journey, and the failed journey we made the other day as well. Today we went to the severance hospital in Sinchon (which has a Burger King and a Haagen Dasz shop in the lobby) with Leo for his eye check-up, which took about three hours. That is, I'm afraid, all.

Day 11 - Some boozy days

On friday Jim, Steve, Christine and I went hat shopping in Eedae, wandering around the malls and such. After lunch, as we were walking to the Subway stop, Steve suddenly threw up in the street, which was a little odd. Jim and I thought he was just reading something, so we left Christine to deal with him, which on reflection was a little unfair.

Leo and I went to try and watch Transformers at the IMAX in Yongsan, but they wouldn't let us in even though it only started 10 minutes before we got there. We went to the electronics market, but that had all shut, however we did see loads of homeless guys building cardboard coffins to sleep in, many of which were very technical and impressive. Afterwards we drank a load of Soju with Danny in the hostel, and went out to Noise Basement, a club in Hongdae. It was rammed, but really cool - I met a girl in the queue called Michelle, who was from Luxembourg, and who knew Hannah Nerl, who was on my physics course at Uni! Luxembourg is very small, I suppose. Met quite a few cool people in there, although it was unfeasibly hot and sweaty.

I woke up somewhat disoriented and went for a walk, and on my way home I bumped into Jim in the toilet in Hapjeong station. We went out for some food, and ended up going to Mister Donut, and then a Japanese place. We are the most marvellous couple in all of Seoul, or at least we shall be when we are wed (We keep finding ourselves in date situations, eg. on the tandem the other day).

Last night we went to a place called Boom Bar, where they had free drinks for two hours, and free entry for non-koreans! It was full of westerners, all taking full advantage of the free drinks. Henry managed to nail about 10-12 pints in an hour and a half, rendering him utterly bananas. As a result, we have a hell of a lot of new book entries. There was a prize draw which Christine won, meaning she had to enter an enforced dance contest - she pulled out the robot, and won a bottle of J & B whisky, which I think we may get to drink...

Henry insisted we leave to make sure we had enough time to watch the rugby, which we did in a place called Watt's On Tap. It was (obviously) somewhat disappointing, but the taxi back was ridiculous, mainly due to Henry's propensity to speak absolute nonsense pretty much continually.

Might try for transformers again today, although we do have 5 episodes of neighbours to catch up on...

Oh, also, we had a communal nap yesterday evening, along with the swedish girl from our room. Very relaxing, although a little odd.

Day 10 - notes

9 - hat shopping, malls, japanese food, loadfs of soju, dany, NB, erica, michele, H dancing
10 - toilet, marvelous couple, donuts and japanese, free beer, communal nap, rugby

Day 8 - Palaces & Violins

Wow, I've got pretty lax on this already. Rubbish.

On thursday I went to Changdeokgung Palace, which has an incredible 'secret garden' at the back, covering an enormous area of central seoul. I did the self-guided audio tour, which was prety interesting, and spent ages wandering around the garden/woods, returning only to find that I had been sodding rinsed by the mosquitos, with about eight bites on my feet and a further three on my face, which have swollen up nicely and give the impression that I have the plague.

Kate got us free passes to the international family film festival, which was one of the most bizare thing sI've seen. We couldn't find it for ages, and when we eventualy did it consisted of a huge outdoor scren showinng the end of some short film or other, followed by a 'special performance' by Eugene Park, a violinist. He began with some fairly standard stuff, and a slightly cringy cover of my heart will go on, then a girl came on with some dancers and did some awful K-pop song, with him paying violin along with it. Then, out of nowhere, he started rapping, some nonsense begining with "hey yo, what you got...'. He then proceeded to play some madness song or other, at breakneck speed, and flight of the Bumblebee (slightly out of tune) and really really fast. There was then a short film that any one of us could have made, which prompted us to run away and find solace in Japanese Food round the corner. Finaly, we went out to Ho Bar with Jan, Steve and Christine to commemorate (probably not the right word) Jan's last night in Korea.
We taught Christine how to play fives (which she never once lost) and freezemaster (which she rather excelled at also).

All in all, quite a good night.

Day 7 - Climbing and Soju

Yesterday wasn't the most exciting day, but did involve a lot of good food. We went out for Ramen for breakfast, and just sort of hung around the hostel watching films on TV. They have very odd TV here, they Televise games of Starcraft and Warcraft, as well as Go (Even though I've watched a fair bit of it, I stil have no idea how it works).


In the evening Leo and I went to Ewha Women's university to meet Kate, a friend of theirs, to go climbing in the Summit climbing centre. Owing to my massive feet, I ended up being crammed into a pair of size 290 climbing shoes, which were smaller than my feet by a good half inch. It was a lot of fun, although I discovered that I'm rather crap and have no strength in my forearms whatsoever. We went out for dinner and Soju, then on to Mike's Cabin for more Soju, (near Sinchon, right) and I even managed to drink Beer! On our way to meet the others we met a few Korean guys who shared our Soju and gave us some directions, and who we later got to do a 'Ben Bruce' on camera for us. Shortly afterwards we were accosted by two drunk Koreans, who for some reason took a dislike to Jim (we were just walking along a fairly quiet street, minding our own business) and wouldn't leave them alone. We enlisted the help of two Korean businessmen, who tried to dissuade them from attacking us, and all seemed well until the original antagonist ran up behind Jim and launched a flying kick at his back as he walked into a shop! Still Jim ignored him, but then Leo arrived and the guy punched him in the neck out of nowhere, resulting in Jim knocking him over and Leo mounting him and choking him out, thereby stopping the fight. We all walked away up the road, when suddenly the other guy ran up and jumped on us. It was a really weird occurrence, apparently there is never any violence on the streets over here, it just so happened that these guys took an intense dislike to us - even after they had both been floored by Leo, Jim and Jan (all in a very controlled manner, no punches or kicks were thrown, the guys were just taken down and stopped) they kept following us, so we had to take a circuitous route back to the hostel to avoid any further trouble. No one should worry though, apart from this isolated incident there hasn't been any trouble with Koreans at all.

Today has also been a slow one, we just went for dinner near Yongsei university, had really good pork BBQ for only about 6 pounds, and we're now sitting around napping. We didn't get in until about 5 or 6 last night, and apparently that wasn't a big one. Oh dear. Also, I managed about four beers last night, taking my lifetime total to ooh... about five. This will make my life a lot easier and cheaper, as far as going out is concerned anyway. Also, the book of shit has had a lot of new entries recently, Korea appears to be retarding us all.

Day 5 - Seoul! Crabs and Fighter Jets!

We all got up at about 8, to do some packing, and go for brunch at Freshness Cafe, a burger bar in Shinsaibashi. We said goodbye at the Namba bus terminal, as Leona was going to Yokohama as well -I taught them the fish as well. The flight was a bit of a nightmare - because I had changed it over the phone, and it's a paper ticket, she could find no record of it, said it might not work, and made me wait for about an hour at the desk, pissing off the people behind me. The flight itself was fine, but then at the other end I waited for ages in line behind a large african family, all of whom were subsequently taken off into the immigration office, reinforcing the slightly racist sterotype of Koreans, and also shortening my queue by a lot. I called Leo, and met him at the train station (Incheon airport is mental, huge and futuristic).


The Hostel we're staying in, Mrs. Kim's, is pretty cool - we're in the subsidiary house, which means we're not in the same building as Mrs. Kim. We went out for Barbeque, Leo Henry Steve and I, which was really tasty - tons of pork on the griddle in the middle, Kimchi, Beans, Todu, Coleslaw, Lettuce & Nettles, Beers and Soju & Coke, all for W9000 (under £6) each. The whole Ben Bruce thing has really taken off here, Jose Luis (Villanueva, plays football for Chile!) and Farrah have been losing it loads.


Today we got up, had some free toast, and were regaled with stories from last night from Jan and Jim (there is a massive crab in the bottom drawer of the fridge). We went for a walk to get some food, some Korean thing called Kimbup, which is like a long Sushi roll, and was cheap and delicious, and then on towards the World Cup Stadium, down by the river. While we were walking there was a sodding air raid siren! None of the locals seemed very phased, but then fighter jets started going over head and we all got a bit freaked out. It stopped after a couple of minutes, so we calmed down, and Jim started doing an impression of it, and Just as he did it started again! Once again, noone seemed too bothered, so we just waited it out (WHen we got back we looked it up, apparently they have a countrywide drill on the 15th of each month).

It's nice and hot today, shorts weather (I went out in black Jeans, bugger). We rented a couple of Tandems from a stall by the river, which was really fun. We rode along the river for ages, out to an observation deck and back, nearly falling off all the way. We're back at the hostel now, heading into the city later for food and booze, I think. There's a big spider, look!

Day 3 - Kyoto

Domo-Origato-Kasaii-Mas!!!

I know my spelling sucks. That supposedly means thank you very much, by the way. Last night I went to bed at about 2, but didn't get to sleep until about 6 am. Everyone else stayed up until then anyway, so I wasn't too receptive when Les came in to wake me at 8. Jonathan, Leona, Laura and I eventually got off at about 12:30, and got a train to Kyoto, then a bus to the Golden Temple (Kinkaku-Ji) and wandered around. It seemed like it would have been a pretty relaxing place if it hadn't been for the huge crowds of Korean schoolkids.

The pictures to the right show Leona and I, failing to look at the camera at the same time. We rang Les to find out where she was, thought she was coming to where we were, and found out after waiting for ages that she was at Ginkaku-Ji, the Silver temple. Oops. We finally met up with her and her parents around the centre of Kyoto, where we eventually went for a thai meal, very kindly paid for by Mr. Ballantyne. On the way back Les and I dozed off on the train (right), as we were both exhausted and I haven't really slept properly since wednesday. Also, Laura said it took her two weeks to get used to the time difference, which doesn't bode well...

We were planning to play Pachinko when we returned, but everywhere was closed. While this doesn't seem like a very exciting day, it was pretty cool, saw a new city, hung out with some new people etc. The only problem was that I failed to have any Ramen, but I don't have to go to the airport until 12 tomorrow, so there's still time.

Also, I can't get the formatting of this right in any way, but I'm being boring in Laura's room while everyone else is in the living room next door, so I give up.

Day 2 - disaster strikes!

So the company Les works for have screwed them over. They're being evicted on sunday, and having to move to a new flat further out of town, as Nova have not paid the rent for two months, but have been taking it out of their wages nonetheless. Their pay has been delayed by a week, and I've decided to stay until monday to help them move, and also it means I don't have to get up at 6 am to get to the airport, so it's all working out. I got out of the house, the sushi was amazing, I got totally full for ¥700 (only about £3!), then we went all over Shinsabashi and Amemura, seeing loads of shops, Hostos (like Hostesses, but dudes with Rod Stewart hair and cowboy boots) and a few Love Hotels and the odd prostitute, as well as loads of awesomely dressed goth Lolitas, and a huge load of breakdancers outside the OCAT building, who gather there just to practice, it was all very impressive. Now we're hanging out, drinking more convenience store cocktails and chaatting about the problems with Nova. We're going to Kyoto tomorrow! Woo!

Day 2 - the first hangover

It's been an odd few hours, I slept while Les was at work, then got up and went to Namba with her flatmate Laura, drank cans of cocktails (Moscow mule, fuzzy navel etc.) in the plaza for a while, until we decided to go to a club called canon - this is an indie club where loads of Gaijin go every thursday. We snuck in with a bottle of whisky and a bottle of coke, which we hid under a table and swigged from, in a classy fashion. When we walked in, the first thing I see is my mate Josh staring out of a poster! I think it was claiming that the Horrors are playing Osaka on the 27th, which is pretty cool (I don't think anyone believed me when I said I knew him).


I snuck out to get cheap drinks from the convenience store opposite, and got chatting to a few guys, from all over the place. Everyone I have met seems really cool, I'm impressed. The toilets here have a very clever innovation on top - as the cistern refills, it passes through a sink on top, thereby reducing waste enormously, and saving loads of space.

Now, after we left the club, at about 5:30 am, we wandered the streeets looking for food, and we found a Yoshinoya! From what I can remember, the food was delicious, and I discovered that I can use chopsticks when drunk and exhausted. When we got to the subway, I started sliding down the handrail, and managed to rotate very slowly and fall off, landing square on my face, twisting my neck (which hurts quite a lot today). This was not the worst bit though - on my way down I managed to kick Laura in the face and neck, leaving a big red footprint, and causing her to fall over, bruising her arm. I kicked a girl full in the face on my first day. That's pretty bad, by anyone's standards. Luckily, she was very forgiving, and there aren't really any visible marks.

Today has been spent lying on the sofa feeling like utter crap - Les and Laura have gone to work, so Leona's taking me out for Sushi in a minute, which is cool - provided my somewhat shredded digestive system can take it. This is not aided by the fact that I feel really awkward pooing in girl's houses.

Day 1 - I've been found!

Phew, that was exhausting. I got off the plane, found the bus, couldn't get through to Les, got Clare to email her, still nothing, guessed that the right thing to do was to get the bus to Namba, sat on the bus for an hour, still couldn't get through, get a call from Clare worrying about me, then eventually get a call from Les saying she's on her way to get me, then we decide that's a bad idea, I get the tube (which seems to be almost identical to the Paris Metro) to Kitakagaya station, where I (finally) run into Les's open arms. She's gone to work until 10:40 tonight, when we're going out, I think. I'm sitting in her living room while her flatmate Leona is asleep in the other room, listening to the Chris Moyles podcast. Right, time for a wash, I've been travelling for 20 hours. Maybe it's nap time, too...

Day 1 - thoughts from the plane

2 hours in: The first meal has just arrived, on the flight from Heathrow to Osaka. It's Japanese style grilled beef with rice, and tastes exactly like Yoshinoya's, which I had at least three times a week in HK. The wine's not bad either - this is a good omen, I feel...

Also, the chap next to me is wearing a Mad Capsule Markets t-shirt, while I am sporting a Dattebayo one - we are both clearly fans of Japan, albeit in a somewhat geeky way.

4 hours in: I have just watched Die Hard 4, and got quite into it. When it finished, I looked at the flight map, expecting us to be somewhere over Siberia, but no, we're barely past Denmark, and I'm crammed into a tiny seat with my knees around my chin. Boo. The Stewardess is hot though, so it's not all bad.

5 hours in: Everything's coming up Pincess - having requested an exit seat, got all baffled at check-in and ended up with a window seat, I now have a row all to myself! After the lights went out, I went to the loo (I'm only 5 hours into this odyssey, adn my innards are already fighting me) and noticed a few empty seats. I asked the aforementioned hot Stewardess if there were any free rows, and then persuaded her to take the occupied signs off the row reserved for emergency ill people. I mean, it's only 5'6" long, but it's certainly an improvement.

6 hours in: The remit for Japanese sweets appears to be "taste as unlike anything Matt's ever had as possible, while still remaining based on a foodstuff". I've just had a packet of small yellow cylinders which turn into fruity chalk the second I bite them, a spicy rice cracker the size of the palm of my hand, and what I can only describe as a pickled apricot, all individually wrapped. Also, I've had about 5 cups of green tea since I got on this plane. We're currently over Siberia, and the whole country looks as if it's been frosted over, the mountains look like giant snowflakes from the air. It's pretty awesome.

Day 0

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Well, that's it. I've said goodbye to my Aunt, Uncle, Grandma, Caitlin, Sian, Gabe, Mich and Mart, everyone from Uni, everyone from home, and now Clare and I are off on a three hour mission to Heathrow, as the travelling begins in earnest. I've repacked hundreds of times, watched my last Neighbours for a good few months, eaten my last Chorizo, dairy products etc. and am starting to feel sad about the whole thing. I have had crying cousins, Grandma and Mum so far, all of whom have made me feel thoroughly awful about running away.

However, I'm sure this will all fade the second I arrive in Osaka into Lesley's open arms. Aah, Les.

Day -7

I am here - Clare's House

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I am here

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Day -8, not -9...

Well, the last two days have been awesome. Had a farewell dinner with Tim, JK, Birdie, Joe and Bruce last night, then a family one tonight, and may have got a job as an extra in a film on sunday and monday - hence I have to leave somerset a day early to go for a fitting. Some changes to my plans have also become necessary, due to problems with availability of flights. In fact, here is my current itinerary (with surface sectors excluded), although pretty much all dates may well change:

I seem to be pretty much packed as well, and my bag weighs only 16 kg - meaning I won't have to distract the check-in staff while taking some of the weight on my knee, as I had to on my return journey from Hong Kong.