hi from london- 2nd edition/ awesome,texas

it was slightly heartbreaking being in austin without the usual lot of us, but im not going to lie, i had an awesome time
this is hamilton pools! its incredible, the drive out to it is all windy cowboy land, then the little hike to it, is so pristine and perfect!





This is pauls first all american breakfast, he was very excited about this maple syrup on his bacon thing they do out there

An illustrated blog! HOW 'EDGE-CELLENT'! (Ho ho ho!)

So here's an introduction to Dance Cave, which is HELLA FUN and we'll definitely be spending time falling over/falling out of there when you're here Woollard...(p.s. click on the pics to see them in their full glory)

Kelly introduced me long ago to the physical wonder that is 'finning'. All I'll say is that it's a more subtle way of indicating an attractive male than actually going up to him and pointing at his face, or even worse, 'HI I'M VICKY, I'M HELEN'S FRIEND, ERRRRR...BYE'

The artwork in Dance Cave largely consists of females with hairy armpits...

And you remember the Asian dancing man I mentioned before...HERE HE IS IN THE FLESH!!! Check out Catt's dancing skills...I'm pretty sure there was smoke coming off the dancefloor from the HOT MOVES they were collectively pulling!

Inevitably the night ended in none other than the glorified chip shop that is Sneaky Dee's (and I mean that in the most affectionate way)

I can't remember what this was that I was eating, but by the looks of things, I quite enjoyed it. Now you see it...

...and now...you don't.

All in all a very very good night :) But if the night had in any way been rubbish, the very sight of this bike outside Sneaky Dee's would have surely rectified the situation...

Nope...your eyes are NOT deceiving you...that's an actual bike, that we saw with our eyes. I'm not even lion! BaaaaaaaaaHahahahahahahahahahahahaha

BYE BYE LOVE YOU! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now a word from my housemate Dennis...

'The thing about Vicky is, the big things she can totally do, like moving to a different country, finding an apartment, finding a job, making a load of new friends, but it's the little things she can't do, like operating a washing machine, and grating cheese.'

Yeah. What he said.

xxx

An Egg-straordinary Easter

Sorry girls, I couldn't resist from CRACKING the joke above! Ho ho ho!

Firstly, I must start by saying that lately all of my dreams have been about flying home for the day and seeing all you girls (and my family of course) but I think that might mean I'm slightly homesick...unfortunately not homesick enough to come home, you're still far better off coming to me instead :) One month Woolly! One month! :)

So lately my life has been consumed by my new job which is A STUPID AMOUNT OF HARD WORK for just becoming a server! I'm not even remotely exaggerating when I say that I have actual homework (multiple hours' worth of) for each training shift and I have to have an actual verbal exam and 100% pass before I can go on the floor! It's mental, actually quite exhausting and slightly stressful because the longer I train, the less time I'm earning money and right now I'm SO broke. But I'm going to knuckle down to my studies this week and pray that it won't last that long!

But anyways...HAPPY EASTER! This is slightly late now as it's Easter Sunday night but whatever! Last night Kelly and I needed a night out and we wanted to go somewhere completely new (the remit was: NO Sneaky's) so we decided to go to Dance Cave, which I'd been told was amazing by many people and I'm pleased to say that they were CORRECT! However that wasn't before we stopped by McDonald's so Kelly could get fries and I could get coffee (I'd had maybe two hours' sleep the night before...see: stressful job training) and a guy had stood by mine and Kelly's table listening to us talk, then loudly proclaiming 'I love your accent! Your accent...TURNS ME ONNNNN!'...RUN KELLY! RUN!

Back to Dance Cave: Imagine a cross between the Bassment NOT SUBCULTURE and Corp in terms of the setting (it's just one room) and maybe Hospital Radio for the music with a bit of Juvi and you're about there! SO fun! They played Gaslight Anthem, any place like that is alright by me! We got there way before midnight, which is a shocker in itself when you consider that I was involved, and it was still a little empty, but the first two people on the dance floor busted out some moves that I'm pretty sure have never before been invented, never mind allowed in public, which was highly entertaining while Kelly and I got drunker and drunker on CHEAP-ASS vodka and whiskey. It seems that unfathomable dance moves were the order of the evening as a Japanese guy that had been stood very still by the edge of the dance floor the entire night (apparently he's there doing that every night, and refuses to dance or even acknowledge anyone until a song he loves comes on, and then he doesn't stop dancing for the rest of the evening) exploded into some kind of insane, deranged dance routine to RATM...lunges? Check. Dropping it like it's hot? Check. Big fish, little fish, cardboard box? You're getting this by now...

Another thing I liked about Dance Cave was a boy there that looked like a 23-year old Ben Gibbard, I actually found the courage to tell him he was CUTE but WHAT A BLOODY SHOCKER I think he was GAY. Same goes for two boys that had been dancing by Kelly and I all night, they came and asked us to dance with them but by the sounds of their voices and mannerisms they'd much rather have been dancing with each other, with no clothes on, but neither of them had actually realised this yet. Oh well, we got a drink out of them, far better than an inadvertent bumming. We saw one of my housemates' friends in Dance Cave, who shall remain nameless to protect her identity, and we had a blast dancing together all night and nameless girl threw a drink all down Kelly in the most hilarious fashion before suddenly making out with a boy and leaving hand in hand with him very shortly after - that's skill for you! When it came time for us to leave Kelly (who was extremely drunk) and I (who was not really that drunk, annoyingly) went to get the streetcar home, got persuaded to go to a nearby bar with a random dude at the streetcar stop to impress his friends before realising the bar was closed (I should have bloody seen this coming - he was wearing SANDALS), returning to the streetcar stop, getting into some weird argument with some tossers stood there, god knows what about, whinging about how the streetcar was taking forever to arrive and only THEN realising that we were stood on the wrong side of the road. We ended up getting a taxi down the road in the end, to...guess where?...SNEAKY DEE'S! By this time they weren't serving alcohol but we ordered all-day breakfasts and I'm sure I put away an amount of food that would have made a man twice my size cry. There's amazing before-and-after pictures of this on Kelly's camera - also on this camera are pictures of a bike we saw outside Sneaky's that was masquerading as a LION. I can't even explain this bike. You'll just have to wait and see. :)

Today Kelly and I felt fantastic - thanks, Sneaky's! I started the day by baking cupcakes for Kelly as a belated birthday cake and we had the loveliest day getting breakfast in Kensington Market in the sunshine...



...wandering around the vintage shops, being baffled by the sheer volume of vintage cardigans embroidered with cactuses, befriending the crusty punks, being aghast at a girl in Kensington walking around wearing a belly top (and she wasn't a 'small' girl either), getting ice creams, almost being run over by cars, playing on the swings, me crying at Kelly trying to climb up a kid's playhouse in the park and completely getting stuck...



...both of us crying at three guys in the park playing catch and dropping the ball EVERY SINGLE TIME, enjoying the view of the boys that work in the bike shop, decorating cupcakes...



...and going for dinner with Dennis and his aforementioned friend who we saw last night and getting filled in on ALLLLL the gossip after she left...of which there was lots!...too good! Tooooooo good!

Anyway I just realised this was a very long and rambling blog, but I'll leave you with this moment today which made me actually shed tears:

Kelly (to me, taking baking tray out of the oven that she didn't know was filled with cupcakes): What is it?! Vicky, you're teasing me. I can smell it, I can see it.
Dennis (immediately): That's what HE said.

LOVE YOU ALL THE MOST XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'Oh? It's a melon? I thought it was a cheese...'

Yeah sorry Liena it took me a while to figure out what all those little pictures were in reference to...in my defence though Helen didn't know what the Descendents reference was about but that's definitely not as bad as me not being able to recognise fruit :( Breadcake/Flamingo Love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Distance makes the heart grow fonder...

First and foremost, apologies to Breadcake are in order... I've been slack in getting skype and contacting you. I feel we've been terribly low on GOSSIP without you here!
You look like you've settled SO amazingly in TO... and I'm super proud of you for being brave and going out to a new city and starting out on your own! GO team BREADCAKE! I miss you SO much! We just had a Shelena evening and your presence as always was greatly missed!
Anyway, I'm not going to go all bridezilla on you but just so you know I finally got a killer sparkler on my finger and we have booked our wedding on the 4th June 2011, 3pm. Harewood House! Right next to the penguins and flamingos! So to all you fine ladies, make sure you put it in your diaries... I don't want anyone to book any Texas holidays and miss it! and CAWTHORNE consider this a deadline for your return ;)
As for news on the Schneider-Wilson-Tanaka-Wright holiday, we had a blast and I'm sure it won't be the last holiday we have together... I would love to report back to you all and let you know that The Schneider Wilsons tied the knot at the Little White Chapel but unfortunately there was no wedding - (we all know Nicola, Brian and Evelyn would have to be present!) - plus we never found the little white chapel!
We did all the essentials, checked out the casions, fluttered a wee bit on the roulette machines (Black 4 was a winner for us all thanks to Mr Stanley Sommerville's predictions!) and on the gambling for beginners type big wheel!

We visited the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and did all the touristy things -

Shell and James went to see Penn & Teller one night - I have no idea who they are but i guess they are a big deal! Their show sounded incredible and I'll leave it to Shell to tell all about it! Niall and I went to see "O" which is the Cirque Du Soleil at the Bellagio which was incredible- It was unlike anything I've ever witnessed before with a stage that changed from a diving pool to a regular stage within seconds, about 80 acrobats / synchronized swimmers/divers and the most unreal stage/stage set ever.

Another highlight was the best show I have ever ever ever been to in my life ever! Mega thanks to the Schneider-Wilsons for getting the tickets, we got to go to the NFG 10th Anniversary tour at the House of Blues. Supports were Fireworks (amazing!), HelloGoodbye (amazing!), Saves the Day (boring- Chris Connelly and a backing band) and the incredible NFG who played the entirety of NFG, NFG to which we all new the words to every single song!!! it was just unbelievable! Like a sixteen year old mega fan I got the setlist from the lighting guy and bought a poster and an incredible shirt. All of which I will be getting framed to commemorate the amazingness of the show! SUPER GEEK!

In other news I bought back some grape flavoured pop tarts from Walmart in Vegas and they taste like grape Hi-Chew... hmmm YUMM!!!
Its 1 am at the moment so I must be jetlagged as you all know its well after my bed-time!
Love you all and can't wait till we are all in the same room together!
Bearlove x

Blogged Down...

Dearest ladies...sorry for being away from the blog for so long, I have barely had time to breathe...I'm very excited for my day off tomorrow which will be spent stressing over bills both here and back home and wondering which limb I'm going to sell to pay them! :(

Liena and Shell I'm so glad you had a good time in Vegas but slightly disappointed that neither of you came back married! Well, not disappointed really because I would have been mad to miss out - however very excited by rumours of your sparkler Liena, I insist on pictures IMMEDIATELY! And don't you worry I shall not miss your wedding day even for the whole world - especially not now you've thrown real life flamingoes into the mix!!

And thank you for being so proud of me :) I'm not doing bad I suppose! I've been keeping in mind that a year travels fast so I've been taking as many opportunities as possible. I'm just super frustrated right now because my money situation is bad but I start my new job on Tuesday so it's going to only get better from here! :) I miss you ladies so much though...everything would be sooo much better if you were around!

Soooo where have I been...well the weekend before last was my most fun weekend in Canada yet! It began on the Friday night with a trip to the cinema with my housemate Dennis (who is HILARIOUS and I LOVE HIM) and his boyfriend to see Alice in Wonderland 3D. It wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped, it definitely was no House Bunny, but it was fun especially as we went to the midnight showing at the IMAX! Tiredness + 3D = loopy! Then the next day marked the beginning of the road trips, I went out to Scarborough to meet Andy because I was staying with her all weekend, we ate pizza and wings with her friend Dan and then their friend invited us to go visit her at work - she's a security guard on the set of TV show Degrassi! I totally shouldn't be putting this on the internet but we ran round the set for about an hour looking in all the rooms and at all the props, and going outside onto the fake streets and into the fake corner shop with the fake cheeses and sandwiches in the fake chiller! I took loads of pics but I'm not allowed to post them online because she could get into trouble(for obvious reasons) so you'll just have to take my word for it :(

The next day we drove to London, Ontario for the Trapped Under Ice, Polar Bear Club, Four Year Strong and Every Time I Die show! <3 maaaaaaaaan too too too good! Unfortunately we Mapquested the directions so ended up driving in the opposite direction for an inappropriately long time, but some helpful policemen by the side of the road helped us, it didn't help that we also drove past a pretty bad car crash on the way there but WE MADE IT and it was so fun! TUI didn't go down too well with the ETID crowd I must say, I just don't think the kids were ready for Jurtice's moves and the amount of camo that was on the stage right then, it looked like an advert for the Terratorial Army. PBC were immaculate as always and I lost my voice singing along, FYS were fun as hell, ETID were good but I'm kinda 'over' them I think! Emmett and Chris Browne kindly sorted us with guestlist for the next night in Kitchener, we drove there the next day super early and arrived at 4pm with nothing to do in the crappy non-town that is Kitchener, we did however find a hilarious German shop (no really) where we laughed at actual-for-real lederhosen costumes and amusing wigs and then wandered into a little shopping centre where a shop was actual-for-real called 'Hip Hop Store' (clearly they didn't employ the services of Breadcakes' Brandnames for their store), but then that was it for the all-too-brief entertainment value of Kitchener town centre so we went back to the venue, grabbed Emmett and went to find where the real fun was - across the road in the Irish pub, where we drank Strongbow and pitchers and ate chicken wings until it was time to go back to the venue, hurrah! We watched the show from side stage (definitely a good thing because the place was rrrrrrrrrrammmmmmmmmmmmmmmed!) and felt like children at Christmas, hung out a bit more after the show and then the fun was over for the weekend so off back to TO we went :( I love road trips so hard!

I caught up with a couple more old friends later in the week too - Erik Perkins and Billy Bean who we know from No Trigger but are now in Outbreak! They were playing a show further up my road (I love being able to say that, haha) so I tottered up there to say hello, then went to Sneaky's for drinks for my friend Kelly's birthday, then after the show the boys came to Sneaks and we carried on drinking and gossiping until 3.30am...and I had to be up at 6.45am for work. Hardcore! So worth it though! They had the best tour bus ever, it was like an actual bus with the sliding doors and the lot, so pimped! It's so funny/weird but awesome hanging out with people I know in a different country...so you kids hurry up and book your flights. Haha <3

Last weekend Andy told me she wanted to take me to a bar she'd told me about called the Madison - it turned out it's a frat bar on a street of frat houses! Too too good! I felt like I was in an episode of Greek with all the houses with the symbols on the front! The bar itself was HUUUUUGE, four floors or something of students and overpriced imported booze (hi @ 14 bucks for two ciders, do one mate!) and it was rammed but super fun! I shouted at a boy's face that HE HAD AN AMAZING BEARD, WELL DONE, and I don't remember being in the pizza shop afterwards but I have had flashbacks of dipping my pizza into some random boy's dipping sauce. I really hope I actually asked his permission first otherwise somewhere out there is one very annoyed sauceless dude.

In other news, basically my current job is so boring it makes me want to rip out my eyes and the eyes of everyone in a ten-mile radius but occasionally a few funny things happen which staves off my emotions temporarily, the highlights of the past fortnight being:
1. Sarah Jessica Parker coming for a fashion launch and her walking past me, she seriously does look like a twiglet in a coat.
2. A man walking around dressed in drag. Not even in an ironic way. I'm not kidding - a full-skirted pink dress, a black floppy hat, a tutu, white knee socks and black pumps. See this would be funny enough but this is what happened next - I texted a message to my friend Kelly on facebook (because she doesn't have a Canadian phone so it's cheaper this way) telling her about the man and wittily ending it with 'I didn't realise Leichenstein was back in town' (our nickname for the boy from Leichenstein she met in the hostel that she's now seeing, and is currently in Switzerland, and is added to my facebook) except I did it all wrong and ACCIDENTALLY SET THE WHOLE MESSAGE AS MY STATUS FOR THE WORLD TO SEE and had to call someone to log into my facebook and delete it before anyone saw. Holy hell, I'm retarded sometimes (all the time)
3. Looking out of the window yesterday and realising a big group of men were sticking leaves onto the bare branches of trees in a park outside my work. Today they had even added flowers. I'm really hoping that it's for a movie shoot of some kind, and not just because the trees were getting a bit cold.
4. Meeting someone from a big Canadian fashion magazine (called...wait for it...'Fashion'), charming the pants off them and them giving me their business card and telling me they'll do whatever they can to hook me up! Whhooooooooooooooop!

But yeah other than that it's excruciating so I cannot waiiiiiit to start my job at Hard Rock next week! I knew I said I wouldn't go back to serving but it's not like it's any old serving job...it's going to be tons of fun :) Plus I had to have three interviews for this job - it must be good!

I will be sure to post up pics of my RRRRRREEEEEEEALLY SEXY HR uniform and let you know how my first shift goes. I have 7 nights of training and then a test on the menu on which I have to get 100% otherwise I have to keep on training...it's so intense! But will be so worth it when I can afford to eat AND pay my rent...it's quite nice when that happens eh.

I thought to illustrate my blog I'd attach some pics :)
1. Katie and I in the German shop with our new hats. You like?
2. Emmett + lots of alcohol = hurrah!
3. Andy has weird thumbs that go at a 90 degree angle...
4. My workmate Julia's glasses party - a spec-tacular success! :)
5. Look! a real-life frat house!

Also, Andy told me a great quote this week that I felt was prolific - 'No lapse of time or distance of place can lessen the friendship of those who are truly persuaded of each others' worth' ...and on that lovely note, I love you all soooooooo much and miss you even more!!! <3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx