~Motto, motto, motto!~
May. 25th, 2006 03:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flyboy_foxOkay, so here's my longer update.
Journey in:
On Sunday we set out from here at 7am on the dot and took a cab to Cheam Station, where we caught the 7:21 to London Victoria, arriving at 8:09. From Victoria, we took the Circle Line to Paddington, arriving at 8:45. Then we took the Great Western Fast Track Express at 9:17 all the way to Weston-super-Mare, and we arrived about 11:45-ish. From there, we took a taxi to the Beachlands Hotel in Uphill Road, literally 2 minutes from the beachfront. So that was the journey in.
Hotel:
The hotel was pretty small but really nice. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I asked for some hot chocolate while I was waiting in one of the little reception lounges, and they brought in a whole teapot of it o.o I had three cups, and still there was more left. Mmm... hot chocolate... Anyway, we finally got our room. It was a very nice little room. The beds were really comfy, and there was a desk, and a TV, and the bathroom was nice. I would have liked to take a nap right then, since I'd only had 2 hours' sleep the night before. But my mum wanted to walk down to the beach, so as soon as the rain stopped (it was pouring for a while), we went out.
Beach:
The beachfront is actually really nice. Weston-super-Mare is supposed to be one of the cleanest beaches... it passed all those tests for absense of stuff like 'fecal streptococci(sp)', which is confidence-inspiring. As soon as you get to the beachfront, you can see how old-fashioned it is. There are little ice-cream shacks all the way down, and a model-boating pond, and those boat-like swingsets where two people sit facing each other and pull on the arms to make the swing go. We were headed towards the town, but it's a pretty long walk. It's a nice walk though, alongside the beach, watching the sailing boats out by the horizon, and you can see the outline of Wales in the distance (at least, I think it's Wales? Could just be a penninsula). There are those little wind-shelters dotted along the way, where you can duck inside and sit down for a rest away from the lovely British elements. And all the hotels along the front are delightfully quaint. There's also a lot of retirement/care homes down the way, so I guess it's where a lot of older folks come to see out their twilight years. A bit further down, there's cafés and little souvenier stands, where you can pick up those little handheld paper windmill thingies, or a ball or a bucket and spade set, or perhaps buy an ice-lolly. It's all so very stuck-in-time, very Victorian in many ways. There's even a little train that goes up and down the beach front. There's also a tiny little aquarium down one of the pier strips, but we didn't have time to check it out. But we did check out the Great Pier.
Pier:
The Great Pier is very old-fashioned too. There's an archway leading onto it, and then all the really quaint little souvenier stands and sweet shops. There's a cotton-candy place (candy floss to us Brits :P), and a rock shop (rock as in the candy, those long poles of sugary sweetness with writing down the middle), and plenty of those little penny-rides for little kids... all really old ones, like horses and wagons. There's even one of those wooden sailor cutouts where you put your head through the hole and have your picture taken. There's a couple of small game arcades too, which makes it a little more modern, but the whole feel of the place is very old-fashioned. There's another little train thingy that ferries people up and down the pier, which is pretty cute. At the top end of the pier is the more modern stuff... it's a grand arcade with bumper-cars, a haunted house, a funhouse, a café, a bowling alley, and even an indoor ferris wheel. They also have one of those drop rides, like the Pepsi Max 'Big One' (but not quite so big). The games selection isn't bad... a lot of SEGA arcade machines, which is cool. They also had In The Groove, and Dancing Stage Super Nova (European DDR), which I REALLY wanted to have a go at... but... yeah, by myself, kinda doofy. And then out the back is a little kiddie train ride thingy through a miniature village, and one of those romote-control boat games. Not a bad pier at all. Wandered around for a bit, then left and went into the town centre.
Town:
The town is just as old-fashioned as the pier. It's full of really quaint-looking little shops, cafés and bars. The candy shops are particularly quaint. They have those huge glass jars of penny-sweets, and baskets of candy canes and rock sticks, and displays of toffee and fudge behind the counter. Mmm... toffee. Sooo... we walked around there for a bit until we stumbled across the High Street.
High Street:
Now, this was a bizarre experience ^^; In the middle of this really olde-style Victorian-esque seaside town is this one street that looks like it could be any high-street in London. So THAT's where all the record shops and videogame shops and clothes superstores and food supermarkets are hidden. It actually looked a LOT like Sutton High Street. There's even a mini-mall that looks a lot like Times Square, plus all the usual shops... Argos, Marks & Spencer, Game, Gamestation, Clinton Cards, Boots, Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HSBC, McDonalds, Burger King... seriously, the EXACT same shops that Sutton has. It was very strange, but cool. So then we went back to the Hotel.
Back at the hotel I decided to take a nap, since I was exhausted by then. Except as soon as I started to doze off, I got the most GOD-awful cramp in my foot ;_; Cramps are so evil. I did get a bit of sleep after that though. The rest of the evening was just in the hotel. I had a prawn sandwich for dinner... it was really good. LOTS of prawns. And I had a White Russian at the bar. I was pretty impressed that the guy knew how to make it, 'cause sadly most bars I've been to don't know ;_; (It's vodka, Tia Maria, and milk). Got a fairly early night, and had some whacked out dreams about alien invasions. ^^;
Next day:
Spent the morning in the hotel. I had the full traditional English breakfast. Black pudding and all. I've never tried black pudding before, but I actually quite liked it ^^ Bloooooood. Ahem. Then we had to just wait around for a while because my mom's interview wasn't until 12:45. But sadly, the hotel kicked us out of our room at 11:00 to prepare it for the next guests. So we had to just wait around in the lounge. My mom ran through her presentation with me and asked me to troubleshoot it for her and give her some suggestions on stuff, which I did. Kinda cool that she actually takes and uses my input on this kinda stuff. But yeah, finally her cab arrived and she left, so I was by myself for the next few hours. I was gonna just stay in the hotel and read or draw or just veg out with my MP3 player, but there was this whole conference room full of business people just finishing, and they swarmed out and took over the whole reception area ^^; So I decided to walk back into town by myself and just spend the time there.
Boy was it windy out there ^^; I literally had to hold my sunglasses onto my face to avoid them being whipped off, plus my MP3 player earphones kept getting knocked out by the wind. But the worst thing was my hair. My goddamn hair is always in my goddamn face :P And with the wind, it just kept whipping me. Walking along the shorefront, I kept getting sprayed with sand, too. But it wasn't a bad walk. Standing on the beach with my arms out and my eyes closed while the wind whipped around me almost strong enough to knock me back was actually pretty cool. They say sea air is invigorating, and I have to agree... something about it makes you feel alive. One of the strongest memories I have of that walk is of running down the beach listening to "We Can" on my MP3 player and watching the gulls circling overhead, caught in the updraft like feathers on the breeze. How nice to be able to glide and soar on the wind like that with so little effort ^^ Hmm. Aaanyway... I made it down to the pier again, after stopping in a café for some hot tea and a cookie, and I just wandered around the arcade for a bit. I guess I spent about £2.50 on the coin pushing machines and a couple of claw machines, but there really wasn't anything worth fishing for. All generic teddies and stuff... oh yeah, and that damn Crazy Frog :P Go away! There WAS a Pikachu keyring, but it was in one of those machines where it's pretty much impossible to win _anything_, let alone the prize you actually want :P So I didn't even try. And then I wandered back into the town. It took me forever, but I finally found a Barclays bank and I paid in the £40 I had in my wallet, which I've been meaning to do for a while. I only had £5 in my account and I was in serious danger of going overdrawn. But now I'm safe. After that, I wandered around a bit more, then asked in the Post Office if there was an internet café anywhere around. She pointed me down Orchard Street, and after a pretty long walk, I finally stumbled upon a Java Lounge café. I called Jei up and spent about 25 minutes chatting to her online, which was nice ^^ Would have been nicer if the wonderfully considerate guy sitting at the next computer hadn't been blowing cigarette smoke in my face the whole time. Guh. But anyway, finally I got a call from my mom saying her interview was over, and so I told her where I was, and she walked up to meet me.
We decided to kill some time by getting something to eat, so we had dinner at this really nice little fish n' chips place on the seafront. I had scampi and chips. I love scampi, and this was the real deal, whole scampi, not that reconstituted crud they often use in fish restaurants. It was soooo yummy. The only downside was the little packets of ketchup... some of them didn't have the little nicks in the side and were therefore impossible to open. But it wasn't enough to ruin a great meal :P Then we found this little bar/café/club place, and ordered some drinks. I had a ice-cold Carling, since they didn't have any Guiness (boo!). I also got greedy and had a caramel ice-cream dessert thingy. Then as we were just sitting there, my mom's cell-phone rang so she went outside to answer it. As soon as she did, she started jumping up and down and punching the air like a kid, so I knew pretty much straight away that she'd got the job ^^; The bar staff were looking at her very strangely, so I had to explain. Then when my mom came back in, the staff were REALLY nice. As soon as they heard my mom is planning to move us here now, they started writing down numbers of good places to live and estate agents to contact... they were really friendly and helpful, it was so different to how people are around where I live now. In fact, everyone we met was really friendly and nice. Sooo... we finished our drinks, then finally called a cab to the station to head back.
The ride back:
We left Weston-super-Mare at 6:15pm and got off at Bristol Temple Mead at 7:-- er... not sure actually, because we were supposed to wait 50 minutes there but we ended up getting BACK on the train and changing at Bristol Parkway instead. Then we went from there to Paddington, and that was 8:45ish? We took the District line from there all the way to Wimbledon, and then took the 93 bus back to Sutton, getting home a little after 10:15. Then I crawled online and spent the rest of the evening here. The whole experience was kinda tiring... a lot of travelling and a lot of walking... but... it was all good ^^
OH YEAH!! How could I forget!! In the candy store, I picked up some Haribo candy and... one of those little styrofoam DIY paper-airplanes! XD You know, the ones that come in pieces in a little flat packet... they cost about 50p. There's the main body piece, and then you slot in the wings and the tail, and put the little plastic nose-cap over the end, with the propeller-piece stuck in. The one I got was Piper Tri-Pacer... it actually flies (well, glides) really well! XD WHOOSH!! I need to go to the park or something and fly it properly.
So, in conclusion, my mom and I are moving across the country to Weston-super-Mare. My brother and my dad (who's returning in June, yay >.>) will remain here in this house (which will affectionately be referred to as 'Assholeland' from then on [thanks Jei-ji XD]) while my mom and I rent an apartment in W-s-M.
In other news, my dad finally emailed me... to say that he won't be able to email me the details about Mar-Ce for at least another two weeks. GODDAMMIT >.o
To be honest, I'm really kinda a bit overwhelmed. In two seconds, everything changed and suddenly we're moving. We have to be out of here and have a place in W-s-M by the end of July/beginning of August, really, if we're going to be settled by the time my mom starts work on September 4th. I'm gonna have to sort out what I want to bring, because I won't be able to bring everything (at least not until we stop renting and buy an actual house, later down the line). I'm gonna have to change all my address details for stuff like my bank, PayPal, my magazine subscriptions, etc etc... I'm gonna have to learn a whole new area. Getting to London will be much harder. Getting to the airport will be even more difficult x.o They say that moving house is the third most stressful event that can happen in a person's life, after family member death and divorce. Also, I'll have to leave Fox behind ;_; No kitties in the apartment building. This whole thing is going to take a bit of getting used to. But life goes on, eh?
Well, that's it for now. Sorry for the incredible boringness of all that. :P
Journey in:
On Sunday we set out from here at 7am on the dot and took a cab to Cheam Station, where we caught the 7:21 to London Victoria, arriving at 8:09. From Victoria, we took the Circle Line to Paddington, arriving at 8:45. Then we took the Great Western Fast Track Express at 9:17 all the way to Weston-super-Mare, and we arrived about 11:45-ish. From there, we took a taxi to the Beachlands Hotel in Uphill Road, literally 2 minutes from the beachfront. So that was the journey in.
Hotel:
The hotel was pretty small but really nice. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I asked for some hot chocolate while I was waiting in one of the little reception lounges, and they brought in a whole teapot of it o.o I had three cups, and still there was more left. Mmm... hot chocolate... Anyway, we finally got our room. It was a very nice little room. The beds were really comfy, and there was a desk, and a TV, and the bathroom was nice. I would have liked to take a nap right then, since I'd only had 2 hours' sleep the night before. But my mum wanted to walk down to the beach, so as soon as the rain stopped (it was pouring for a while), we went out.
Beach:
The beachfront is actually really nice. Weston-super-Mare is supposed to be one of the cleanest beaches... it passed all those tests for absense of stuff like 'fecal streptococci(sp)', which is confidence-inspiring. As soon as you get to the beachfront, you can see how old-fashioned it is. There are little ice-cream shacks all the way down, and a model-boating pond, and those boat-like swingsets where two people sit facing each other and pull on the arms to make the swing go. We were headed towards the town, but it's a pretty long walk. It's a nice walk though, alongside the beach, watching the sailing boats out by the horizon, and you can see the outline of Wales in the distance (at least, I think it's Wales? Could just be a penninsula). There are those little wind-shelters dotted along the way, where you can duck inside and sit down for a rest away from the lovely British elements. And all the hotels along the front are delightfully quaint. There's also a lot of retirement/care homes down the way, so I guess it's where a lot of older folks come to see out their twilight years. A bit further down, there's cafés and little souvenier stands, where you can pick up those little handheld paper windmill thingies, or a ball or a bucket and spade set, or perhaps buy an ice-lolly. It's all so very stuck-in-time, very Victorian in many ways. There's even a little train that goes up and down the beach front. There's also a tiny little aquarium down one of the pier strips, but we didn't have time to check it out. But we did check out the Great Pier.
Pier:
The Great Pier is very old-fashioned too. There's an archway leading onto it, and then all the really quaint little souvenier stands and sweet shops. There's a cotton-candy place (candy floss to us Brits :P), and a rock shop (rock as in the candy, those long poles of sugary sweetness with writing down the middle), and plenty of those little penny-rides for little kids... all really old ones, like horses and wagons. There's even one of those wooden sailor cutouts where you put your head through the hole and have your picture taken. There's a couple of small game arcades too, which makes it a little more modern, but the whole feel of the place is very old-fashioned. There's another little train thingy that ferries people up and down the pier, which is pretty cute. At the top end of the pier is the more modern stuff... it's a grand arcade with bumper-cars, a haunted house, a funhouse, a café, a bowling alley, and even an indoor ferris wheel. They also have one of those drop rides, like the Pepsi Max 'Big One' (but not quite so big). The games selection isn't bad... a lot of SEGA arcade machines, which is cool. They also had In The Groove, and Dancing Stage Super Nova (European DDR), which I REALLY wanted to have a go at... but... yeah, by myself, kinda doofy. And then out the back is a little kiddie train ride thingy through a miniature village, and one of those romote-control boat games. Not a bad pier at all. Wandered around for a bit, then left and went into the town centre.
Town:
The town is just as old-fashioned as the pier. It's full of really quaint-looking little shops, cafés and bars. The candy shops are particularly quaint. They have those huge glass jars of penny-sweets, and baskets of candy canes and rock sticks, and displays of toffee and fudge behind the counter. Mmm... toffee. Sooo... we walked around there for a bit until we stumbled across the High Street.
High Street:
Now, this was a bizarre experience ^^; In the middle of this really olde-style Victorian-esque seaside town is this one street that looks like it could be any high-street in London. So THAT's where all the record shops and videogame shops and clothes superstores and food supermarkets are hidden. It actually looked a LOT like Sutton High Street. There's even a mini-mall that looks a lot like Times Square, plus all the usual shops... Argos, Marks & Spencer, Game, Gamestation, Clinton Cards, Boots, Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HSBC, McDonalds, Burger King... seriously, the EXACT same shops that Sutton has. It was very strange, but cool. So then we went back to the Hotel.
Back at the hotel I decided to take a nap, since I was exhausted by then. Except as soon as I started to doze off, I got the most GOD-awful cramp in my foot ;_; Cramps are so evil. I did get a bit of sleep after that though. The rest of the evening was just in the hotel. I had a prawn sandwich for dinner... it was really good. LOTS of prawns. And I had a White Russian at the bar. I was pretty impressed that the guy knew how to make it, 'cause sadly most bars I've been to don't know ;_; (It's vodka, Tia Maria, and milk). Got a fairly early night, and had some whacked out dreams about alien invasions. ^^;
Next day:
Spent the morning in the hotel. I had the full traditional English breakfast. Black pudding and all. I've never tried black pudding before, but I actually quite liked it ^^ Bloooooood. Ahem. Then we had to just wait around for a while because my mom's interview wasn't until 12:45. But sadly, the hotel kicked us out of our room at 11:00 to prepare it for the next guests. So we had to just wait around in the lounge. My mom ran through her presentation with me and asked me to troubleshoot it for her and give her some suggestions on stuff, which I did. Kinda cool that she actually takes and uses my input on this kinda stuff. But yeah, finally her cab arrived and she left, so I was by myself for the next few hours. I was gonna just stay in the hotel and read or draw or just veg out with my MP3 player, but there was this whole conference room full of business people just finishing, and they swarmed out and took over the whole reception area ^^; So I decided to walk back into town by myself and just spend the time there.
Boy was it windy out there ^^; I literally had to hold my sunglasses onto my face to avoid them being whipped off, plus my MP3 player earphones kept getting knocked out by the wind. But the worst thing was my hair. My goddamn hair is always in my goddamn face :P And with the wind, it just kept whipping me. Walking along the shorefront, I kept getting sprayed with sand, too. But it wasn't a bad walk. Standing on the beach with my arms out and my eyes closed while the wind whipped around me almost strong enough to knock me back was actually pretty cool. They say sea air is invigorating, and I have to agree... something about it makes you feel alive. One of the strongest memories I have of that walk is of running down the beach listening to "We Can" on my MP3 player and watching the gulls circling overhead, caught in the updraft like feathers on the breeze. How nice to be able to glide and soar on the wind like that with so little effort ^^ Hmm. Aaanyway... I made it down to the pier again, after stopping in a café for some hot tea and a cookie, and I just wandered around the arcade for a bit. I guess I spent about £2.50 on the coin pushing machines and a couple of claw machines, but there really wasn't anything worth fishing for. All generic teddies and stuff... oh yeah, and that damn Crazy Frog :P Go away! There WAS a Pikachu keyring, but it was in one of those machines where it's pretty much impossible to win _anything_, let alone the prize you actually want :P So I didn't even try. And then I wandered back into the town. It took me forever, but I finally found a Barclays bank and I paid in the £40 I had in my wallet, which I've been meaning to do for a while. I only had £5 in my account and I was in serious danger of going overdrawn. But now I'm safe. After that, I wandered around a bit more, then asked in the Post Office if there was an internet café anywhere around. She pointed me down Orchard Street, and after a pretty long walk, I finally stumbled upon a Java Lounge café. I called Jei up and spent about 25 minutes chatting to her online, which was nice ^^ Would have been nicer if the wonderfully considerate guy sitting at the next computer hadn't been blowing cigarette smoke in my face the whole time. Guh. But anyway, finally I got a call from my mom saying her interview was over, and so I told her where I was, and she walked up to meet me.
We decided to kill some time by getting something to eat, so we had dinner at this really nice little fish n' chips place on the seafront. I had scampi and chips. I love scampi, and this was the real deal, whole scampi, not that reconstituted crud they often use in fish restaurants. It was soooo yummy. The only downside was the little packets of ketchup... some of them didn't have the little nicks in the side and were therefore impossible to open. But it wasn't enough to ruin a great meal :P Then we found this little bar/café/club place, and ordered some drinks. I had a ice-cold Carling, since they didn't have any Guiness (boo!). I also got greedy and had a caramel ice-cream dessert thingy. Then as we were just sitting there, my mom's cell-phone rang so she went outside to answer it. As soon as she did, she started jumping up and down and punching the air like a kid, so I knew pretty much straight away that she'd got the job ^^; The bar staff were looking at her very strangely, so I had to explain. Then when my mom came back in, the staff were REALLY nice. As soon as they heard my mom is planning to move us here now, they started writing down numbers of good places to live and estate agents to contact... they were really friendly and helpful, it was so different to how people are around where I live now. In fact, everyone we met was really friendly and nice. Sooo... we finished our drinks, then finally called a cab to the station to head back.
The ride back:
We left Weston-super-Mare at 6:15pm and got off at Bristol Temple Mead at 7:-- er... not sure actually, because we were supposed to wait 50 minutes there but we ended up getting BACK on the train and changing at Bristol Parkway instead. Then we went from there to Paddington, and that was 8:45ish? We took the District line from there all the way to Wimbledon, and then took the 93 bus back to Sutton, getting home a little after 10:15. Then I crawled online and spent the rest of the evening here. The whole experience was kinda tiring... a lot of travelling and a lot of walking... but... it was all good ^^
OH YEAH!! How could I forget!! In the candy store, I picked up some Haribo candy and... one of those little styrofoam DIY paper-airplanes! XD You know, the ones that come in pieces in a little flat packet... they cost about 50p. There's the main body piece, and then you slot in the wings and the tail, and put the little plastic nose-cap over the end, with the propeller-piece stuck in. The one I got was Piper Tri-Pacer... it actually flies (well, glides) really well! XD WHOOSH!! I need to go to the park or something and fly it properly.
So, in conclusion, my mom and I are moving across the country to Weston-super-Mare. My brother and my dad (who's returning in June, yay >.>) will remain here in this house (which will affectionately be referred to as 'Assholeland' from then on [thanks Jei-ji XD]) while my mom and I rent an apartment in W-s-M.
In other news, my dad finally emailed me... to say that he won't be able to email me the details about Mar-Ce for at least another two weeks. GODDAMMIT >.o
To be honest, I'm really kinda a bit overwhelmed. In two seconds, everything changed and suddenly we're moving. We have to be out of here and have a place in W-s-M by the end of July/beginning of August, really, if we're going to be settled by the time my mom starts work on September 4th. I'm gonna have to sort out what I want to bring, because I won't be able to bring everything (at least not until we stop renting and buy an actual house, later down the line). I'm gonna have to change all my address details for stuff like my bank, PayPal, my magazine subscriptions, etc etc... I'm gonna have to learn a whole new area. Getting to London will be much harder. Getting to the airport will be even more difficult x.o They say that moving house is the third most stressful event that can happen in a person's life, after family member death and divorce. Also, I'll have to leave Fox behind ;_; No kitties in the apartment building. This whole thing is going to take a bit of getting used to. But life goes on, eh?
Well, that's it for now. Sorry for the incredible boringness of all that. :P
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 04:47 am (UTC)I hear ya with those stupid crane machines, you think you have the item won and then it mysteriously drops the second it leaves the ground. Just a waste of money in the end, I'd only do it if I saw some really cool keychains I couldn't resist or some other little prize for one of my favorite characters :P And guh, smoking is disgusting. I don't see why people do it honestly, meh
I've tried those styrofoam planes before, but they always break in a day. They end up crashing horribly into a wall and one of the wings ends up in several pieces. They're cute for the first couple of tries, but that's about it :P
I've only moved once in my life, and that was only when I was about 3 years old to another house only a few blocks away. I can only imagine how much of an adjustment it'll be in the short-run. But overall it seems like you've moved into a pretty nice environment. And hey, maybe you'll end up making a few new friends in the process. Just try to keep positive through it, and let everything fall into place ^^ Good luck to ya during this stretch bro
no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 08:12 am (UTC)Flyboy, I don't really understand why you don't feel like talking to people now. Maybe we should talk about it together, so that at least I understand. It's been a really long time since I talked to you.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 10:02 am (UTC)In Arabic, cotton candy is called 'girls' hair.' O_o; xD; I have no idea why.
OMG, IT'S CHIBIUSA'S HAIR!!!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 11:05 am (UTC)assholelandthis house with my brother and my dad ;_; I'll miss my Foxie! My dad is evil... he always hisses at Fox and kicks him ;_; I hope he doesn't treat Fox too badly...no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-25 08:15 pm (UTC)Weston Super Mare is in places really does look old fashioned though, XD One of the only beaches I've seen that still has carts that are pulled by donkeys O.O