Booooooooo...

... for the post-holiday blues.

Why is it whenever you come back after a superb holiday that everything that you left behind feels so much more boring and daunting. :( I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that coming back means at some point I have to get round to doing more projects, getting a new website, job hunting, career hunting, and a few other emotionally draining nitbits.

However, enough of that... I'm still trying to ride out the wave as long as possible after arriving back from Japan and holding on tight to the good vibes from such a great holiday.

Fact. The weather was stifling and I'm pretty sure most of us had a minimum of five strops a day because of the heat and humidity. It was like a sauna, everyday.. or if you've ever worn jeans and had that heavy damp jean-suction-to-legs feeling... then you know what I'm talking about. I bought a hat, a parasol and oober strength suncream to get me through, and fortunately Japan has nifty vending machines on every street corner with tasty sugary hypotonic energy drinks so I survived. Oh how I miss those drinks.

Fact. We had an earthquake on the last day. Funnily enough it didn't feel half as bad as I thought (though I was half conscious at 4.30 in the morning) and being in a 9 story tower block all I really felt was the bed moving and that queasy swaying feeling. The tremor we had in the UK a few years back felt much more like an earthquake... the shaking, the noise etc... but as I said, I think being in a tower block that's designed to sway I think did me out of the whole scariness of the earthquake experience, for which I *think* I'm grateful. yep. I'm grateful.

Fact. My luggage made it all the way to Tokyo and half way back before getting lost at Amsterdam. It arrived the day after which put a great deal fo stress on my anxious little body. I had Japanese Koala biscuits in there for heavens sakes!

I really miss it actually... and I think the post holiday blues is always a sign you've had an awesome holiday. The wedding was lovely, the country, the city, I just loved everything we saw there and there's far too many pictures images and thoughts roaming about my head that I wouldn't know where to start even talking about it; but I have my photo's. All 290 or so of them... a handful of which have been uploaded onto FACEBOOK and on to my temperamental PHOTOBLOG. I'm also going to put together a great big scrapbook of the whole trip with all my photo's and tickety-bits I collected along the way. It'll be awesome albeit HUGE and possibly taking over a year to complete. But hey, I like a challenge. I have many happy, sunny memories and also many lovely purchases from my trip to Japan which I will cherish for a very long time. I just loved all of it.

The cake topper survived by the way ( I recieved the bouquet from Yumi (my new sister in law) as a thankyou :) )... and it went down fantastically well and I'm getting much advice to start selling them asap. Which I'd love to do of course so that's in the pipeline also.

In other quick news.. I think I was far too muffly-headed before I left to tell you all that HeavyRed finally used some of the artwork I made for them on their Myspace page... check it out *here*.

I shall leave you with a list of my purchases from Japan:

* Four boxes of Koala biscuits
* Two boxes of chocolate and biscuit mushrooms
* One box of biscuits
* Two fans
* Some Tokyo Disney chopsticks
* A moomin!
* Two little phone charms- one Ninja, one Pirate
* A Monokuro Boo phone charm
* A Nightmare Before Christmas wallet
* A 100 yen Monokuro Boo Facecloth
* Four mini fan pressies
* A mini Japan map wall hanging
* One beautiful Yukata (dressing gown/summer Kimono) with a print of cranes on
* One AWESOME toy story alien over glove from Tokyo Disney!
* A birthday bear wearing a Kimono (present from Yumi)
* A Henry the Hoover T-shirt
* A parasol
* A Hungry Caterpillar magnet
* and one awesome furry dude with a big mouth toy who's name on the tag is only in Japanese so I've no idea who it is.... but I love him!
* A Pirate bag from Tokyo Disney
* A Pirate card holder
* Pirate earrings. (anyone would think I had a thing for Pirates!)
* A rather funky belt
* A cool hat :)

Not bad eh? And I didn't even get charged for being over my 20kg weight limit!

Now go check out my photographs while I get down to some serious scrapbooking!

Slink xx

Konbanwa

Just a quickie to let you know I`m safe and well although I`m struggling with the humidity here a bit. This is no place for hair straighteners let me tell you!

I`m having a totally amazing time here; taking far too many photographs of course. The wedding was beautiful also but I'll be sure to fill you in on the details when I get back. Right now, I need a nice cool shower.

Mata Ne!

xx

All Packed and (almost) Ready To Go...

Well now I'm packed my head's feeling a bit clearer. Today's been pretty busy and stressful- we sent Gizmo off to her boarding.. er... vivarium, popped into town teice for extra bits and have spent the rest of the day packing. I only cried and got in a tizzy once. Woob.

We leave early tomorrow morning and my brother tells me it will take a good 11 hours on the plane to get to Japan. *must remember to buy Puzzler* We even bought some wicked-ass scales today to make sure our luggage was under the limit, but we had a good old play with the body-fat and body-water percentage functions too. I am only 14.8% fat and 55% water. *buy extra chocolate for the journey*


I have much to do tonight still. Most of the night will consist of me doing all the necessary girly things that I need to do to make myself look and feel presentable for the rest of the holiday. Particularly seeing as the humidity is going to make my hair look thoroughly crap for a fortnight.

Fairwell people. I shall return with photos and much to talk about.

:-)