25/05/09

The bus got in at half 5 and we were all pretty tired. We got a taxi from the greyhound terminal back to Banana Bungalow on Fairfax and Melrose. When we got there we just dumped our stuff in the communal area and all laid out on the sofas. The same guy as before was sat in exactly the same position doing the same thing, chatting on skype. It was a nightmare, he was having the most boring conversation with some guy called John. He seemed to be trying to make out that he was working on some kind of big time screenplay and he just kept going round and round in circles with his conversation in the most condescending tone ever. If I was John, I would have told him where to shove it and hung up hours ago. After 20 minutes of listening to this tripe I heard him say right I'd better go to bed, we'll finish this in the morning. An hour later he was still giving John the same grilling as he had before, I was getting sick of it and I very nearly got up and told him to stop talking complete s*** and go to bed. At about half 7 he b*****ed off and I got half an hours kip before getting up and having a shower. Rich was really tired and couldn't fathom what we were talking about when we told him he was owed $40 from all of us, when we explained that he was owed $29.95 + $10 he still couldn't understand why we thought it was $40, in his head it added up to $30 and there was no changing his mind.

At 10 a guy came round a bundled us in to the van to take us to Universal Studios, I was still feeling pretty tired but the shower had woken me up a little. Laura, Rich and I had some serious trouble comunicating with a OAP that was selling tickets for some reason but eventually managed to get in. The first thing we decided to do was go on The Mummy ride, I had no idea there were even rides here, I thought we were just visiting studios. It was pretty good, the girls were screaming like mad, Helen was so scared when the scarrab beetles started coming towards her that she flinched and ended up gashing her toe open on her toenail. Our next stop was Backdraft which just consisted of stuff blowing up and being set on fire. We then went on the special effects show which was pretty cool. They showed us how they used a double green screen to film shots from Heroes. When we left here Rich said that it wasn't anything like what Pat had told him. He thought that was Backdraft and had completely forgotten that we had even done that already, needless to say much mocking ensued.

We wandered back up to the main area and spotted Krustyland. The best queue in the world, they showed the best-of clips of all the Simpsons episodes, they had the 'We need more Bort license plates' the 'Canyonaro' song and heaps more, we were laughing pretty much the whole time we were queueing, except for Helen, who hates the Simpsons for some reason. The ride was pretty good and also made Laura feel dizzy and sick. We then went on the Universal Studio tour and saw the sets of loads of films including Jaws and War of the Worlds. We were driven past the set of Desperate Housewives and then into the famous Studio 50 for the emulation of an earthquake.

We went to see Shrek 4D, I really enjoyed it, I wasn't too keen on being sprayed with water throughout the film and the wierd hissing noise coming out near my left ear. Throughout the film I caught Laura trying to grab and pick up things that appeared to be in front of us. As we left the cinema a show of the trained animals was going on. There was a really cool parrot that the woman got to steal a dollar out of a guys hand in the audience. We then went to see Terminator 2 3D which was awesome and then walked through the house of horrors. The house of horrors was no match for the one in Melaka where they just threw a dish cloth at you from behind a wall. We were behind a group of girls that were freaked out by everything. The only part that made me jump was when I stumbled in to one of the security guards that are dressed entirely in black and lurking in the corner. He actually scared the life out of me. We had now run out of time to do anything else so we sat around and tried to increase our level of tan before getting the bus back.

We got back, checked in to Banana Bungalow and chilled out for a while. The lads and I watched the LA / Denver game. I had 2 cups of coffee and by half time my stomach was hurting from them so I had to lay down. When the game finished at about 9 we walked down to the grove to go a for a meal. We found a rather swanky looking Italian place that had good prices so we sat down. We had just about decided what we were going to have when the waitress came over and asked if we had eaten here before. She then explained that all the portions in this place were to share and were about 8 times the size of a regular. Pat and I decided to get the giant pasta shells to share, Helen and Laura got a dish to share and Rich went for a small spag and meat balls. The dishes arrived and I have to say I was dissapointed with size. We only got 4 giant pasta shells each, it was more like a starter. Rich's dish was huge and we all sat and watched for about 20 minutes while he finished it up. When Rich went to the toilet after finishing his meal our waitress brought over a congratulatory plate with a huge cookie on it which he then had to find room for. My stomach was still hurting badly, I was still hungry but couldn't put anything inside it, which made it torture watching the others eat a huge chocolate cake.

When we got back to our room we couldn't use the toilet because someone was in it. Shortly after we got back we heard some music coming from the bathroom, and after around half an hour we tried the door again, a guy came out and had been browsing the net on his laptop in there. I lobbed the toothpaste towards Rich and as he went to grab at it he ended up swiping it really fast straight in to the guys face. We burst out laughing and couldn't stop for ages.

26/05/09

I woke up early and had a shower and some free breakfast. Then we spent the morning sitting in the lounge waiting for our shuttle to the airport. I spent ages sewing all the badges on my bag while mocking the guy that seemed to live in the hostel that was talking to John on Skype yesterday. I snuck outside to try to get a photo of Pat in his classic foot tan pose but for some reason he wasn't doing it. We took the shuttle at about 1 and got to the airport then sat around and tried to spend the rest of our dollars. We all ended up having a chinese for about $10 except Helen who went for the classic McD's. The girls bought Cosmo to read while we waited and we boarded at about 5. The flight was actually pretty good, they had on demand films so I watched Taken which was really good, even though Rich was bursting out laughing at some stand up the entire time. Then I watched Gran Torino and Benjamin Button which pretty much sent me to sleep. Apparently I was asleep when they served breakfast which really pissed me off.

27/05/09

I'm not really sure when it turned from the 26th to the 27th. When we got close to Heathrow we had to circle for about 20 minutes because there were too many planes trying to land and I was getting pretty fidgety. We finally landed and I used the disposable toothbrush I had picked up on the Heathrow to Bangkok flight to brush my teeth then we picked up our luggage and walked through the gate to the arrivals lounge.

It was pretty wierd seeing Mum and Dad again, it instantly felt as if I hadn't actually been away at all. It was good to finally put a face to some of the family members that we'd heard so much about during the trip. We all had a hug and said goodbye and that was that, the end of an era. I walked to the car park with mum and dad and we hopped in the car and headed back to Ditchingham. The journey seemed to go in a flash, whether it was because I was used to lengthy uncomfortable bus and plane rides or that I was babbling on about loads of crap I don't know.

When we got back I saw Jodie and Kelvin again, Jodie looked so pasty, that gave me a good laugh. I was then introduced to the Cat that had somehow become our pet. After emptying my bag on the floor and scooting the contents in to the utility room I was called to the backdoor where CatCat had left me a pressie, a nice little bunny playing possom in the footwell. Mum made lasagne and I ate without having to cook or wash up then dished out the few gifts I was able to carry along with me and they act pleased with them.

Once that was done with everyone started going to bed and I sat in my room wondering how I used to waste so much time before I went away. I started to get very bored and couldn't sleep even though I'd been awake for 30+ hours because my room was too quiet, I needed to be in a dorm hearing people farting, burping, snoring, mumbling and generally moving about around me. After a while of trying to sleep I went online and had a chat to Laura who seemed to be suffering from the same problem. I eventually managed to sleep and ended up dozing off for 15 hours.