So, England huh? The land where the sun never shines, the people are miserable little Mr Hankys, shuffling from puddle to puddle swaddled in black trench coats, chewing on week old Yorkshire puddings that taste like two week old cardboard & no one ever smiles. Nope, never been there.

This is apparently, unseasonably warm weather for England, but by god is it nice. Every day her has been at least 24 degrees, sunny & just plain old fashioned bloody delightful. The produce on this little island is for some reason some of the freshest I've ever had, the billion migrants that have come into the place must have spiced up the kitchens no end because by &large the pub & restaurant food is excellent. The British 'cask' beers - beer that comes from micro breweries all over the countryside & is stored & delivered in little wooden casks - is so good it would give a corpse a taste for drink. What else? Oh, the shops here are all filled with things I like. That may be a product of having only walked into shops that look like they have things in them that I like & that there's a trillion of them here....but anyway, the fact still remains.

In short, this place is really giving me a good idea of why 9 million people have chosen to call it home for so long. There's a lot of culture, a lot of colorful people, and a shittonne of stuff to do. Watched Les Miserables yesterday as we just felt like it. Where the hell else in the world can you do that? (It was really good, & very faithful to the book for anyone that's wondering).

Oh, also: Paris. Anyone that hasn't had a good look at Paris yet, I suggest you book a holiday right now & fix that as soon as possible. It is like a poem that isn't crap, but you get wine & food covered in butter along with it.

Anyway, back to the England. Currently on a high speed train to Bath, of all places. It is evidently a nice countryside town in the .. Actually, I have no idea what direction we're traveling. Go look at a map if you're interested. But we're going to that place now. Hopefully, this will involve a good crack at the Roman baths, a jaunt over to Salisbury, & I really, really want to get a look at Stonehenge, which is apparently fairly close by. Only time will tell how this weekend works out, but it has the potential to be a good one. And the sun is STILL FREAKING SHINING! So awesome.

Well, all for now. I know this is a crap travel log, but a) I don't have a proper computer at the moment & this iPad is a pain in the balls for doing real tasks, b) it's more fun doing other things, c) I can't upload any photos at the moment as they're on my phone & it's a giant dickaround getting them on this machine. Besides, all I'm doing is gushing really. I think my view of Europe is horribly skewed by the insanely happy people I keep encountering, the postcard weather, & the utter lack of work I always have to do. Hoping to come back to London in January in order to put paid to that.

Apologies for the typos, the train is rocking around like an ADHD kid with red cordial & a flask of amyl nitrate.

Until next time!

One down, seven to go

Well, that was three & a half days of lounging, chilling, more lounging, more chilling, & taking advantage of the 60 minute sliver of sun we had to hang out by the pool. Next stop, Paris. Well, actually, next stop is an uncomfortable as hell seat in a little AirAsia plane all the way to Paris on what is sure to be an entire night of no sleep, butt pins n' needles, & a whole bucket o' jetlag. But whatevs. We're on holiday.

Also, screw you, Alfy: Langkawi is freakin' awesome.

Having a grouse time.

The end.

Actually quite confusion...

Getting ready to leave & have finally squeezed out the last big brain dump of work before our Euro-jaunt begins, so I'm actually getting kind of excited now! With a reasonable list of destinations over a very reasonable chunk of time, I reckon this holiday which begins in t-minus 53 hours is going to be an absolute ripper.

Been getting a few Hong Kong willies out of our system in the lead up to LOLEuroBomb2012 (working title), so we've had a couple of big nights, a massive number of giant meals (including a small mountain of dim sum), a peek at the mid-Autumn festival lanterns, & a whole lot of complaining about the freakin heat. I swear, its so bloody hot here that I could glue air particles together just with the goop they're leaking into the atmosphere all up in here. Euw.

Anyway, just wanted the excuse to stick up a few photos & say YO to all'y'all before f*cking straight off into the horizon for a FULL CALENDAR MONTH of fun &/or adventure. Oh, & apologies to those of you whom I don't work with who have already seen all this on Facebook already. So anyway, check us enjoying the balmy Hong Kong nights with countless alcoholic beverages!

Night #1: Phil's B'day celebrations & beer drinking challenge

Looking pleasant during an actual beer drinking challenge. Mark of a true man.

Looking mildly wiped out during a beer drinking challenge. Fairy 'nuff I say.

BEEEEERS!

The rest of the photos from this night are a bit messy, so *scene deleted*

Night #2: Random night with no purpose that turned out awesome

Out at Blckbrd, on Lyndhurst Tce

God knows where this is. It's DARK.

I love this camera. Luscious lips, or just weird?

A simple misunderstanding over...I dunno...eight gin & tonics...?

But everyone was friends in the end.

Is this a test shot? Anyway, observe: Wine.

My boss being delightful & flipping us off while taking a shot. Look carefully, we're grimacing in the background.

I have NO idea what happened here, but I'm 80% confident it didn't involve pants removal. This comforts me. Mostly.

Want some mint with your mint juice?

Back at Joyce is Not Here. This is a bar you are ALL coming to when you visit Hong Kong.

Drinkies at Joyce. Always awesome.

As well as heading out on the town, there's been time to squeeze in a little bit of culture. It's the mid-Autumn festival today, so we 'beat the crowd' & went to see all the lanterns set up in Victoria Park on Sunday night. There's fire dancing, dragons, palm reading, plays, etc. on Monday & Tuesday but Hong Kong being Hong Kong, we figured there would be about a trillion people there so we decided to get in early. It was still crowded as a hell, but realistically, it wasn't any worse that Causeway Bay train station on any given day. In any case, it was cute & fun, & seemed kind of old world in a way. There was carnival music playing & lots of lights, & funniest of all, zillions of little kids running around confused & excited & freaking out over the newness of everything. Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Mmmmmm fish...

Lots o' lights over lots o' people

This big fish had lots of little fish

Man, I seriously love this camera. How good are those colours?

Checking the fish lanterns

Bit busy this pic. Too busy. Also, that chick on the right obviously didn't like being photographed. Well, you're on the Internet now love. FOREVER.

Causeway Bay & its 87 billion shoppers.

This was handmade by 2 old masters of lantern making. Not sure if that would pay so well, but they did a great job. It rotated & everything. Very cool.

Got a light?

Loz turns her head & the big fish goes all Cassius 1999 disco-crazy.

These will be the last pics from HK for a while, as we're off to Europe on Thursday arvo. I'll make sure to do a few updates & get busy with the photo uploading whenever I can so you can all perceive the radness of Europa from your desktops. Prepare to enjoy. Jealously.