There are many things to love about Budapest but the view from the Gellert hills at night is by far and away the best. Made especially sweet by the fact that getting up to the viewpoint took so much energy that I could probably eat a bag of mini eggs every day until the day I die and still be replacing the calories I used getting up the damn thing. Lesson one from Budapest: It’s big and seeing everything by foot will make your inner child want to throw themselves on the floor and demand to sit down right.now. It’s a long post so you can find the rest after the jump.
(more…)

I decided that the time was right to book a holiday. Since finals are just around the corner, along with the thesis hand in date looming. This week I spent working to get in a bunch of coursework early so I could spend a couple of days thinking about something that isn’t deadline related.
I’ve wanted to explore Eastern Europe a bit more since I was little and so when a good deal to Budapest popped up I thought why the hell not. I fly out early Sunday morning..on Whizz air.
Now..not to diss Whizz air until I have actually flown on it, but the name concerns me a little. It’s like a group of tweens were given a school project to design an airline name..and there ya have it..Whizz air. They should have called it Rad air and be done with it. I went to their website, you know, to check it actually existed and well..it did..but you know what scares me even more? It’s very pink and purple..like eye bleedingly so. This coming from a girl who has spent the last 3 years living with 4 bright purple walls and a green carpet (Student housing..where the décor is dreamed up by someone playing pin the tail on the rainbow donkey)
I am not entirely convinced I will ever arrive at Budapest, but rather will be kidnapped by some disgruntled fairies and forced into an eternity of slave labour cleaning up Unicorn mess. Could be a laugh.

Anyways, I can’t wait, I know precisely 3 phrases in Hungarian, which would be ‘yes’ ‘no’ and ‘do you speak English?’. I am hoping to add ‘beer’, ‘I am lost please help’ and ‘coffee’ to my repertoire tomorrow. I have a feeling I will need those quite a lot.

Expect photos, tales of accidentally selling myself into the slave trade because I got my Hungarian mixed up and the joy of flying pink shortly.

Until then..Viszontlatasra.

People do a lot of crazy things with their pets. Everywhere I go now I see pint sized dogs carried around in handbags wearing matching outfits to their owner. It seriously freaks me out. But today I found something worse, this creeps me out to the nth degree.

I especially love this quote:

Our model, Chicken, looks like her mind is elsewhere when she wears this wig — somewhere in a land of cotton candy and pinwheels where the air smells like sugar kisses.

No I think it’s more along the lines of her mind is somewhere in the land of revenge. Slow, painful and degrading revenge for you dear human.

You know what else is scary? I saw Halloween stuff for sale in my local store today. Today the 18th of February, over seven months away from Halloween. Man it’s like we haven’t even broken up with Easter and we are already sleeping with Halloween behind its back.
Lets just hope we don’t make it a three way with Christmas.

At work today I got to test out my new TomTom toy which I got to help me not get horrendously lost when driving. Last time I tried checking a map at speed I almost caused a Burnout 3 Takedown style moment.
Me and technology, we have an understanding..

Debbie: St Stephans Kent please
TomTom: I can’t find that. You mean St Stephans Scotland!
Debbie: No no, I mean St Stephans Kent! My boss wouldn’t be too happy if I filed expenses to Scotland thanks.
TomTom: No sorry you mean St Stephans Scotland!!
Debbie: Kent!
Tom Tom: SCOTLAND!! And I will continue to shout at you in this very loud voice until you give in weakling!
Debbie: And I will throw you out the window at speed..
Tom Tom: Oh you mean St Stephans Kent! Why didn’t you say so before..

It is a very tenuous understanding.

Today is the first day since, well about October that could offically be classed as t-shirt weather day. Of course I am stuck in work in a shirt and trousers but I don’t care because it is so nice that I like everyone and everything today!

Except for mushrooms, I still hate those.

Happy Chinese new year to you all.
I never normally pay attention to new years because I forgot half the time. The only reason I notice the other new year on the 1st of Jan is because everything is closed and I get a bunch of people asking ‘what are you doing this new years?’. These very same people find my answer of ‘going to bed and watching a movie’ totally unacceptable and feel I should be out drinking until I think I can sing karaoke. In my defence lying in bed watching my favourite movie totally beats murdering classics on karaoke.

Anyways, what was I saying? Ah yes. Today ushers in the year of the rat! I am hoping this year is going to work out good because I was born in the year of the rat many new years ago. According to those random websites

“This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find”

I can certainly discount marriage during the next year for me after all, my mum gave up on arranging a husband for me when I was 15. But as this is a year of big change I am hoping at least some of that other stuff rings true. I just need to learn a little bit of patience because in my day to day life I am sorely lacking of this attribute.

Anyways, for the second time in 2008 I hope this year brings good things. Or at least cookies. Maybe a nice cup of coffee too..which is what I am craving right this second.

Let me tell you a little story.

You are fast asleep (for once!) and dreaming about rainbows and unicorns. You went to bed late after drinking wine spiked with vodka so you are pretty much dead to the world when you hear an almighty crash in the kitchen followed by furtive rustling around. You know your fellow housemates will be asleep because they drank wayyy more and would likely be in a coma somewhere so it can’t be them. It is very dark outside and you have no idea of the time, it feels like 3am. You leave your bedroom to investigate the noises. Everything is dark and very still so you make your way down the stairs and ask, loudly, who is there. No one answers. So you continue to go down, pretty convinced now that it could be a break-in so you are ready, in your pjs, to go ninja on their ass. You are also regretting leaving the baseball bat upstairs.
You are ready to unleash Chuck Norris when a (still very drunk) perky housemate bounced, yes I kid you not she bounced, round the corner, apologising profusely.
She had, at 6am, decided that she MUST bake some cookies as she had church later that day and that it simply couldn’t wait until..oh i don’t know..everyone was awake. A small part of me is laughing that she will go to church drunk or hungover. The largest part of me wanted to cause some serious bodily harm with a nearby spork, after I finished having a fear induced heart attack.

I am suddenly very excited about the thought of living in a non-student house.