What up Bitches.....

A few of us went to our old stomping ground on Friday evening. The music was fabulous, we danced and had some beverages and of course played "there's your boyfriend." There was the guy with the bling and the one with his hockey jersey tucked into his jeans....quite the looker. LD pointed out some loose change on the ground (i love picking up change) so she slyly slid it over with her foot so we could crouch down and grab it. I think i made 56 cents. LD was handed a rose from a stranger who then just walked away, I had a cutie try to engage me more than once in witty banter and i giggled at his remarks and continued on. This reminded me of the time Jennifer and i were getting take out in the wee hours of the morning, and the hottest man came up and asked if we would join him and his friend for food. We declined and said we were ordering take-out....silly silly girls, whatever were we thinking?

The charmer however came at the end of the evening. We were at the car gathering our purses and such from the trunk when this guy drove by and said "What up bitches?" We all sort of stood around looking at one another rather confused "did i just hear what i think i heard?" Yes indeed ladies "what up bitches?" It's a wonder we're all single with such talent out there. After the charmer left a woman who was alone in her car summoned our friend Jen over. Apparently she wanted us to smoke a joint with her...yeah ummmmm let me see....no thanks!!

Hope you all had a great weekend. I am off to volleyball this evening and tomorrow morning i get my lady bits frozen off (Well not my actual lady bits but those pesky cells that are causing me grief). Wish me luck !!

Music

Sorry, i've been rather sick and quite busy back at work which has left me little time for much else this week.

Have you ever heard a song and it brings you back to a place, a moment in your life? The song that holds the most significance for me is Angel by Sarah Mclachlan. I could live the rest of my life just fine without ever having to hear that song again. It was played at my Aunt's funeral, and if i happen to be out and it's playing it brings me back to that day and i'd rather not go there. Funny how the mind works.

It happens to me as well for silly reasons. For instance every time i hear Tiny Dancer i think of Almost Famous or when i hear Breathe i think of the bomb episode on Grey's Anatomy. Also, when i was young i sent an ex Jann Arden's Insensitive for a laugh, he didn't find it so funny, i thought it was hilarious albeit immature.

Does this happen to anyone else?

(sorry this is terribly choppy and not at all eloquent i realize this but it's all i have today)

At last...photos...

I had a bit of a day yesterday. I got some news from someone and felt rather hurt and terribly embarassed cause clearly i'm an idiot, then my mother did something i asked her not to do when i was away and i had a lettuce moment (Dan will get that reference). I stood in Jennifers livingroom and just started to cry. I'm not sure if it was the jet lag, no sleep, that time of the month, perhaps reverse culture shock, i haven't a clue but i just started to cry and cry after i got off the phone with my mother which is quite unlike me. Thanks for the hugs Jennifer!! I think i just felt overwhelmed and very tired.

Ahem, so i am all better now and i present to you the photos. I've put about 80 or so into a yahoo photo album that you can check out (click on the West Africa one obviously). I took about 500 so be lucky i've narrowed them down :)

Here are a few of my favs though:

This little girl was at the GAR where we were trying to get a taxi to take us to the village. She just kept staring and staring. I would smile at her and she would just stare blankly at me. It was just so strange as most of the children are overly friendly. We left for the village and returned a few hours later and there she still was. Again she stood right by us and continued to stare. I had Dan take this photo and then i showed her. She looked at the picture, smiled and put her head down. I tried to talk to her as well, but again, she just stared curiously at me.


Worst toilet EVER!!! This was at a bar near K's house, i went to the washroom beside it, i just could not straddle over that thing.


These girls were my first experience with children in Ghana. They were sooooo cute and wanted to take us up a lighthouse. They hugged us, held our hands and were just so incredibly happy and excited.


I was barley able to balance this bucket on my head long enough to take the bloody picture, how the heck is this woman carrying so much while walking....


Cutey Patooty in the Village!!


The coconut boy that Jennifer tried to barter with. She wanted to pay less than the 10 cents he was asking for the coconut.


Come on now. How the heck are they able to A) get all that stuff up there and B)drive like that.


Myself and Dan back in Ghana after wrestling our bags from the people in Lome at the border...so happy to be in Ghana!!

Continuation

So yeah, the fetish market was not my bag at all, and they were scammers in the end trying to get us to buy horribly over priced fetishes. I'll post photos of the elephants foot and such later on. We left Togo and headed onto Benin where the border guards were none too friendly but they let us into their country anyway (Glad i don't speak French as we let Dan deal with the mean lady). We stayed at this amazing place in Grand Popo called Awaleplage on the beach. We were so tired and hot from all the travelling that day, we decided to relax on the beach for the rest of the afternoon which was heavenly. The next day Dan and Jennifer headed off for more sightseeing while K and I soaked up some more sun. We had a hell of a time trying to find a ride to the border to go to Tsevie and stood on the side of the road in the sweltering heat for what seemed like hours. We were grouchy and finally caught a lift in this great Bob Marley car. The driver was cool, had great tunes playing and his car had decals of Bob on the side with psycedelic interior, we could not stay in a foul mood after that ride.

However, our ride to Tsevie was unfortunately not as plesant. The driver had no idea where he was going and instead of taking the main route decided to take us down this "road" to avoid paying the police. This "road" was awful, completely awful. I thought for sure he was taking us out into the boonies to rob us and leave us for dead. There were no lights, pitch black, all mud with potholes and pools of water, not safe at all. My other fear other than robbery was getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere which was completely possible. He stopped to ask a lady about the road and wanted to bring her with us to navigate the road. After much discussion with Dan and the driver, we went it alone. The driver told us he knew the road, so Dan asked why he then needed the lady to navigate the road if he knew it. Dan "either you know the road and don't need the lady, or you need the lady and don't know the road" the driver just continued on. He also told us it would be about 5km, after 15km still in the middle of nowhere Dan asked if it was going to take 10 mins, an hour or 3 days. The driver laughed "3 days hahaha." It was an appropriate question given the circumstances. We came upon a pile of garbage to which K replied "hey this is my neighbourhood" how lovely LOL. We made it out alive. We went for dinner and i went to the bathroom beside the worst toilet in the world. It was so bad i could not even use it, i had to go beside it. I'll post a photo and you'll see why.

On our last day we went to K's friends Village. (While getting ready to go Jennifer and I perfected carrying a large bucket on our head....well for the photo at least as that is how the people carry most of their things and we wanted to try it.) It was not something one would normally see on such a trip and it was wonderful. The people in the village made us lunch Fufu and K's friend took us around to show us the sites which were mostly mud huts. The children were amazing and flocked around us and loved their photos being taken. They laughed and laughed when we showed them the digital pictures and followed us the rest of the way. We bid farewell to K and headed back to Lome for our last evening. Tuesday was insane, we were up at 6am, at the market buying last minute things, getting our fabulous dresses from the amazing tailor and heading to the border to go back into Ghana. The border was absolute mayhem, people were crowded around the car trying to "help" us with our luggage for a fee even though we told them no and not to touch anything. As soon as the trunk opened hands were flying, luggage was being carried off in every direction, i had to wrestle my suitcase out of this man's hands it was brutal. We finally made it over the border into lovely Ghana. It was such a breath of fresh air after the whole melee. People greeting us "hello beautiful ladies, welcome" and one of the guards at the border bought us water...i LOVE Ghana!! After even more shopping and dripping with sweat (Jennifer commented that if we took a shower we would be less wet) we headed to the airport.

Our flight left at 8pm and arrived in Frankfurt at 5:30am. Woo Hoo!! Our connecting flight did not leave until 1pm, we saw a lot of the Frankfurt airport. We travelled for about 40 hours straight on no sleep and have finally arrived home. I'll post some pics soon, i'm off to bed :)

The long dark road

So we left Ghana and travelled onto Lome, Togo. It's actually more impoverished in this country if that's even possible. It was absolute mayhem at the border, trying to get out of the car while everyone was rushing up trying to sell us their wares (a toque??) or carry our luggage. We made it to Chez Leon, dropped our bags and went out for dinner. Great Lebanese food. We all decided to partake in smoking a Huka which was interesting, while eating dinner and having some beer. We met a few of K's friends and had a good evening. The next day we went to meet the tailor who was to make our African Lady Dresses. He was amazing and went with us to the market to purchase more material, we all loved him. Jennifer made a new friend we dubbed the "market lover" and sang a song "Jennifer, where are you, Jennifer, come back soon" when she went to a few stores as he waited for her to return. Dan and i witnessed this and i have Dan on video reinacting the song, it was ridiculous, i was crying i was laughing so hard. We then went to a Fetish market which was quite shocking especially to me as i do not eat meat. Seeing tables and tables full of dead animals, heads, an elephants foot, a hippo skull.It turned my stomach. I"m getting kicked out of here, i will tell more later.

We spent that evening with more

You have now been eliminated from the Race

The theme for this adventure has been the amazing race. We're all ridiculous and continuously make reference to the show...this is our roadblock...this is a detour. Apparently Phil voted off Jennifer a long time ago but miraculously she is still here hehe :)

We have thus far closed down 3 bars where the staff have gone home while we continue to drink our $2 625ml beer, I love Africa!! In all seriousness, i've been to 3rd world countries before but have not ventured past the resort walls. I'm in absolute awe of how impoverished it really is here. We wandered around James Town in Accra where the sewers are open and the streets are made of dirt and i loved it. The kids here are quite incredible. They were waving from balconies, yelling "how are you, how are you?" giving us high fives and running up and holding our hands, it's amazing. The people in Accra are quite friendly, our waitress sat and chatted away the evening with us. I have tried some great food, red red beans and fried plantains...yummmm, as well as these rice balls in a crazy spicey sauce that i'm sure burned a hole in my esophagus and i loved it...so good!!

We visited a market where the locals were literally grabbing our arms, pulling us into their stalls to purchase drums and masks. We've taken to just walking away from the big crowds or you get sort of encompassed by everyone. I declared my love of Africa to Jennifer on our 2nd evening here. A few days later whilst standing on the dirt road with all our luggage, surrounded by people barttering for a ride to Anomabo, she looked at me and said "so do you still love Africa" and we just laughed and laughed, it was mayhem. We made a 4 hour trek to Anomabo from Accra. It took longer than we had hoped and it became dark. K asked Dan if he was ok driving in the dark (we had a driver but the roads can get a bit scary at night) he looked around at the greenery surrounding us and declared "no K, i'd love to sleep in the jungle tonight, " which was hilarious as there was nothing but palm trees and bushes and nowhere for us to stop. After a rather frightening drive for the last hour or so on a not so paved, potholed road, swerving to miss the potholes going 120 we made it.

The "resort" in Anomabo was really quite nice, we stayed in a thatched roof mud hut surrounded by palm trees on the beach. It felt kind of strange knowing what was just around the corner and how the people were living, for us to be somewhere rather decadent.

In Anomabo we relaxed on the beach in the morning and headed up to Cape Coast to the Slave Castle. We also wandered along the beach into town which was quite an eye opener for me. As we were further and further from our "resort" the area became a bit sketchy. Kids running up and asking for money, vultures and goats eating garbage together and the kicker for me, was all the human excrement along the beach, fresh turds as the guidebook said, oh my!! It was a little bit uncomfortable but was fine.

We were waiting on the side of the road for a cab and a boy of about 10 was across the street selling coconuts. Jennifer decided i should get one so we wandered over. He told her it would be 1000 cedis. Jennifer said she didn't want the white person price and said she wanted the same price he had just given to a local woman. The boy just stood and smirked at her, so she gave him the 1000. Later on Jennifer remarked "that little shit charged me 1000 cedis" K pointed out that 1000 is like 10 cents in our money. We all had a good laugh at Jennifer trying to barter with a young boy over a 10 cent coconut and she called herself appalling. I pointed out the area in which this poor boy had to be, the diesel he was breathing in standing by the road, the goat eating garbage across the street, 10 cents was a bargain.

We went to Kakum National Park and walked on the canopy above the rainforest on a suspended rope bridge. We also took the nature walk through the forest and learned about the various trees and medicinal purposes. It was really beautiful there, we also saw this enormous blue scorpion that the guide told us was "really small." It was hugggeee. We then went to Elmina which is a little fishing town and went to the Slave Castle there as well. Standing outside this little boy came up to me and was chatting. He then pointed to my leg and said "you're dirty" i was like "what", he said the same thing and pointed to the little bit of dirt on my leg from the rainforest. I gave him a sucker and sent him on his way..little shit :)

We made the 6 hour trek to Lome, Togo yesterday and are taking it easy today, emailing, getting our fabulous African Lady dresses made. Everyone is thrilled that i no longer want front seat privledges after our drive yesterday. There were people walking along the road, tones of potholes that we were serving to miss as were the cars coming at us and almost hitting people, all while going 120...i'm content to not have a front row view of that again. As far as bug bites and what not, i'm totally fine, other than this lump that developed on my neck yesterday, i'm sure it will go away on it's own :) (though Jennifer says it may be guinea worm, she'll get a stick and twist it out haha.) KIDDING!!! No worms, but there is a lump. I've also developed this bruise on my entire arm and shoulder as i had a mishap in the shower at Jeccels house last week and slipped on the non slip mat, go figure. I smashed my neck and landed on my side. Thankfully i was ok and noone had to come and rescue me naked in the shower. I'm sure they are thankful for that too. (Oh and Jeccel is quite the looker i must say, he's in the marines as well.)

For our remianing time we are going to K's, a village and to Benin. Hope everyone is well, i still LOVE Africa!!!!!!

See you Later....

Alright, so we leave tomorrow for West Africa, i'm all packed and heading up to stay with Jennifer for the night. If all goes well, we arrive home on November 8th. I havne't a clue if i will be able to blog or not, so check if you'd like but no promises here. Chances are i'd rather be dancing with the locals or chasing wild animals than sitting in some stuffy room infront of a computer. I'm bringing my camera cable just in case so i can post pics of our fabulous African Lady dresses, cause who am i kidding, i love computers!!!

Apparently there is a halloween party on Saturday with some Marines..who knew!! So we may not totally be missing the festivities after all. Anyway take care everyone and i'll be in touch at some point....so excited!!!!!!

As an addendum. I was heating something in a styrofoam container in Jennfier's microwave. She looked at me and said "what, do you want to get cancer?" and then pointed at my nether region and said "oh wait, you already have it." This is going to be a lonnnnng two weeks LOL.

Safari Vests & Basketball

So i went to visit Jennifer this weekend. Friday evening i hung out with her bf while she volunteered, we watched girlie movies...oh and Lucky Number Sleven. I'm sure he was thrilled.


On Saturday Jennifer and I went to Okonomiyaki House for none other than Okonomiyaki of course!!! It's this delightful Japanese pan-fried batter cake that is made with flour, eggs, shredded cabbage and whatever else you would like to put in it.
Soooo Good!!! If the opportunity ever presents itself, I highly recommend you try it.

I ended up at a costume party that evening dressed in a Sari. There was an Indian couple there that were so in love with my outfit they offered their spare room to me for the evening. Really great people, i enjoyed talking to them.

Oh Dan if you're reading this i found the perfect outfit for the plane ride to Africa, i hope it won't embarass you too much....


Sunday evening was date #2 at the Raptors game. (Shockingly after taking the above photo he still wanted to hang out with me). I was able to get some really great seats for free, 5 rows up from the court great. They played Cleveland so hottie Lebron James was there * wipes her drool*



It was a really close game, Raptors won 91 to 90 and to top it off Mr. Samuel L Jackson was in the front row hanging out watching the game. He's the blurry figure in the red hat...unfortunately he was across the court and apparently my zoom sucks.


Here's a pic from their site

The Week From Hell

It has been a rather trying four days for me. Since Saturday i have:

1) Ripped my knee open like you would not believe. My own clumsy fault however it's quite bad and rather sore.

2) Had a kitchen fire. I was boiling water and almost left the room while i waited but thank goodness i did not. I look at the burner and see a flame under my pot so i pull the pot away and whoosh, more flames so i turn off the burner. Next of course i blow on it (i watch too much survivor and should realize this is a way to make the fire grow, which it did). Finally i remember the fire marshall from my grade 5 class and throw a pot lid over it. I wait a few seconds and lift it to even more flames. I throw it back down and wait a minute wondering how i'm going to call 911 and grab bunny at the same time, however this time the lid did the trick and it was out. Of course the house reeked of smoke and it turns out it was not at all my fault. Someone else had cooked before me and left grease in the holder under the burner and it caught fire. Of course they had no idea it was there.

3) I was leaving for work on Tuesday, went to pick something up off the floor and BAM pinched my Sciatica Nerve. I've been off work and on muscle relaxants ever since. Not good at all, it hurts to walk or get out of bed, or cough.

4) Got the results back from the doctor and have to go for treatment. I'm assuming the cells were pre cancerous and they have to freeze them...ewe. Then they fall off like scabs, how disgusting. I'm going after my trip as apparently stuff oozes out and would most likely show through my khaki attire :P

5) I also had a bit of a fiasco trying to get some bloody pictures developed. They have been a thorn in my side for the past few weeks and finally I was able to deal with them this evening. Thanks LD!! Oh and a shopping cart somehow managed to slam into my car as we were leaving the store.

I've been a bit of an emotional wreck all week and had quite the cry today, it was very cathartic. So needless to say i am VERY much looking forward to the weekend where i can just relax and have a good time. Any funny jokes that will cheer me up until then?

Khaki Vests and so forth

So Jennifer wrote this ridiculously funny post about what she thinks i'm going to be wearing in Africa, check it out it's hilarious.

I'm going to show you all a few of my favorite shoes, and you tell me if you think i'm the type of gal to be wearing khaki vests and tilly hats.






While were at it, let me show you a few strange items that i owned at one time as well.

This is a corset purse that i fell in love with years ago. I never use it anymore as i've grown up....but just a little bit.



This is a coffin purse that my dad made for me when i was a teenager, now it's a jewelery holder in my closet...again i've grown up a little bit since then.



Halloween is fast approaching. Do any of you still dress up and if so what are you going to be this year? My favorite costume that i wore a few times was Mrs. Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction. I only have my head shot unfortunatley but the rest of the outfit was great. I had a big needle sticking out of my chest with blood all around it and surprisingly a lot of folks figured out who i was. It was from the scene where she OD's and is brought back to life. Good times.

Seriously now.....

Seriously now.....
Can you even imagine making such a purchase????

Come on over...

My co-workers and I were discussing children a few weeks ago and how innocent and carefree they are. One woman watched as her young son invited a child over to play that he had never met before....they laughed and dug in the sand and had a great day. They didn't know one another's history or anything at all about the other and yet they were instant friends. Why is it as adults we want to know so much about someone as and before we befriend them?

We want to know their history:
Have they ever been married
Do they have kids
What was their childhood like
Did they have a good relationship with their parents
Any addiction issues

The list is endless. The youth where i volunteer told me about this card game Bismark that you learn in jail, so if someone knows how to play Bismark run for the hills. Why can't we be more like children and just accept each other as is regardless of all the baggage that may be attached?

Love the Weather

So us Canadians get a long weekend as it's our Thanksgiving and so far the weather has been wonderful. It's warm, sunny and absolutely gorgeous outside. I spent the afternoon on Saturday at a baby shower which was a bit different than most i've been to. This one took place at a golf course and had a 3 course meal very posh and lovely. After, a few of us decided to hit up a small pub and linger on the patio to get the last bit of sun in for the day. Linger we did, we ended up staying there for over 6 hours just catching up and chatting having a few pints and some dinner. An unfortunate moth flew down my top and ended up dying in my bra, how disgusting. It was hilarious though as we were quite dressed up and a few people commented on our all black attire wondering where we had come from. They figured a funeral and laughed when we said a baby shower (I had red shoes on, counts for colour). Needless to say after such a long day, i was in bed on Saturday night at 10:30pm.

Today my mother and I decided to go hiking. We rarely ever hang out and figured we'd take advantage of the great weather and enjoy the area in which we live as we never bother to do so. We just went down to the gorge and watched the JetBoats go through the rapids before heading back up. Here are a few photos:












Oh and i'll leave you with something silly i did. I was at a friends house the other day, she pointed out some white stuff in my hair and asked what it was. I had no idea what she was talking about, so i looked, put it on my finger and tasted it. She then yelled and laughed and asked if i had been outside "what if it was birdshit?" I had never thought of that...EWE!!

Keep that thing away from me.....

Alright so not the best week. I found out the results from my annual were the same so i had to go in for a biopsy. Going once a year is bad enough, three not so great. Especially when the 3rd visit consists of getting sprayed with vinegar in my womanly area, magnifying glasses and a sharp pointy long metal thing that resembles a juice opener going on in and ripping a few pieces of my cervix out or cells or whatever...good times. Needless to say i was quite upset when i heard about this on Monday but then i thought of Rosemarie Siggins whom has nothing to do with my vagina by the way :)




I watched a documentary on her this past year, she's dubbed the woman with half a body. She was born with a rare genetic disorder and her legs were amputated when she was just two. Rather than be confined to a wheelchair she has used her arms and hands as her main mode of transportation. Rosemarie loved cars and became a mechanic, she found a man to fall in love with and married him and then became pregnant. Rose's pregnancy was extraordinary and ground-breaking, no-one with Sacral Agenesis had ever given birth and all but one doctor advised her to have an abortion. She did not and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Her mother who pretty much held the family together passed away and Rosemarie was left to care for her father who had not only Alzheimers' but schizophrenia as well, her 29 year old brother who has the mentality of an 8 year old and her son and husband.
Rose said "A lot of people with disabilities feel that life owes them something, and I was raised in a way that no, no-one owes you a dime. The world doesn't owe you anything, this is what you have and you use your resources and you get through life. My personal opinion is, get up and go for it, just do it."


This woman is an absolute inspiration to me, she's overcome so much in her life and has the most remarkable attitude, she's just amazing. I cannot possibly feel sorry for myself when i remember Rose and her inner strength and will, we can all learn something from her.


Completely off topic, SS posted her old prom photo, i thought it would be fun to do the same. Check out the gold shoes whew!! It's strange that i look much better 9 years ago than i do now, shouldn't i look worse back then LOL. At least i know i have potential :)

100th Post

So after a very long long week of learning (mock trials, sex offender casemanagement, human rights training) i hit up the big city for some fun and went to visit Jennifer.






Her friend rented a roller rink at a place called Rinx. We first sat and watched a game of whirly ball, almost a cross between bumper cars and basketball. This poor old man was in one of the cars and for about 5 mins was turning the stick trying to move his car but could not and noone was helping him. It was rather amusing. So we put on the old school skates and off we went. It as so much fun, i felt like a kid again. There was a disco ball and they played all 80's music like Boy George and Madonna. We played tag, hockey (apparently i cannot shoot and skate at the same time, i ended up on my ass)and Jennifer tried to give me a wedgie but denies it.




After the roller rink we went to an all night art show around the city called Nuit Blanche, it was open till 7am but we petered out around 3am.

"The city will be buzzing with activity as we break down the barriers between art and public space. For one sleepless night the familiar will be discarded and Toronto will become an artistic playground for a series of exhilarating contemporary art experiences. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche is a free city-wide event featuring more than 130 contemporary art projects for you to discover."




One exhibt was numerous fog machines over Philosopher's Walk that you could go through, they had Elvis titles along one street in the windows of apartments glowing in neon pink, there was a disco in the middle of the street which was rather disappointing. The one i enjoyed the most was at a homeless bathhouse and was an exhibt on Roy and Silo two gay penguins at the Manhattan Zoo. It was dark around the pool except for candlelight and a video playing and there were all these balloon penguins floating on frisbess in the pool. Very cool stuff, Jennifer has some great photos but they are not in my posession yet.








We also met some strange characters along the way. There was the man who was out jogging and had a strange resemblence to Lincoln from Prison Break. He was crossing the street as were we and put out his hand and tried to shove a bedazzled hair clip into Jennifer's hand. She looked perplexed but took it anyway, i suggested she bleach the shit out of it or regift it, in any event i wasn't going to wear it. We also met a friends new girlfriend. As i've said the city is not as big as everyone seems to think and we ran into some friends at one of the exhibits. We were introduced to N's girl. She looked completely unamused, closed her eyes sloooowwwly and opened them, rolled them even and said "hi." Granted it was hot and there were people everywhere so it could be cause for a bit of crankiness however i've never met someone so bleh. She even commented to him that she was going to "be bitchy later if we don't leave FYI." Wow!!! Perhaps i'm just used to terribly friendly people, of which she was not.

On Sunday we dressed up in Sari's and went to the 8th annual Kalanidhi Indian Dance Festival. This was also very cool and many people were admiring our outfits which was quite the compliment. Strangely though we had the most attention on Church Street which is the gay village when we were walking home. We also went out for amazing Indian food.....yummmmm!!! I was drooling a la Homer Simpson. The staff were also very appreciative of our garb.




So after roller skating for 2 hours straight and developing bruises and blisters, and then walking around in the rain for 3 more hours straight, i'm keen to take it easy for the rest of the week :)