Meaningless, meaningless

Quick update on our tour so far:

Spent 2 nights in Mexico City centre in a gorgeous hotel with a room that opened onto a courtyard/restaurant.  But it was pretty expensive so we moved to "Hostel dos Fridas" in the Zona Rosa (cosmopolitan bit) for 3 more nights.  It was full of pictures of Frida Kahlo, her being a native of the city, and all.  A German girl thought she had malaria and Tom had to act as translator between her and the doctor as she had no Spanish.

We did a lot of wandering there and went up a big tower to see the city.  Also a day trip to pyramids at Teotihuacan (try saying that quickly after a couple of Coronas) where we met another German woman, who we bumped into the next day at the Museo de Antropologia and had dinner with later on.

Then on to a town called Tula for more pyramids and a very chilled, Mexican couple of days (not really any tourists around).  Some kids wanted to take a picture of us because we were so obviously foreign and pasty.  (Tom reckons it was actually because he's so gorgeous.  Hmm.)

Now we're in Guanajuato, which is heaving with tourists, but very cool.  It's built into a ravine and full of winding alleyways and houses stacked up on top of each other all the way up the sides.  I'm dragging Tom to a baseball game tomorrow morning, then in the afternoon we might go to a museum of naturally mummified corpses, some only 5 years old!  People in Mexico seem to be a bit obsessed with death -- they even have a "Day of the Dead" in November, so I'm in good company.

Other highlights:

traffic police blowing whistles at every junction

a basket of bread being brought out with every meal whether you ask for it or not

cafe con leche being a mug of hot milk that you pour very strong coffee into, a bit like hot chocolate.  Mmmmm....

parrots outside our hotel room in Tula

sunshine, and lots of it

Mexican Spanish being a lot clearer and slower than Spanish Spanish

Tom's finished his coffee now so time to go make guacamole.  We're staying in a hostel where we've got our own little apartment with kitchen and everything.  So we're attempting to be domestic and Mexican.  Arriba!

w00t!

The day has arrived. My suitcase is packed and shut (just), my to-do list is all ticked off and I'm about to catch a train to London. Staying at Tom's tonight then off to Mexico in the morning. Arriba!

Yohann and Magda will be uniting in holy wedlock on the 8th April and taking us all on honeymoon with them for a week. Before that, Tom and I will be exploring Mexico city and environs, then taking our chances with long-distance buses.

I'll be flying back on my birthday (April 17th) and arriving back on my dad's (18th). With a straw donkey and a sombrero for each and every one of you.

Have fun.

1am. Jetlagged. Can't sleep. Wrapped up in my duvet, in the dark. With my computer.

Full of angst at the moment. Now I'm back from holiday and I've got three uninterrupted months of writing up ahead, I have The Fear.

I think I've worked out that what I'm actually fearing is not having to hand in the pile of crap I've spent 3 years wasting time thinking about. No, what I fear is having to work. Constantly. For many weeks. And weekends. I think I shall either have to give up going to coffee or give up going straight from coffee to spending lunch hour with Clare Bear. What a horrific dilemma!

Apparently, by warrant of being invited to all the bits of Clare & Pete's wedding I am now officially in the Inner Sanctum of friends, along with the hallowed Mr Beers, Uncle D and Lizzie. I feel honoured indeed.

OK, so I've been thinking of all the nice things I could say to the person I have a crush on, and I've realised that everything nice can potentially be really cheesy, and everything that's cheesy can potentially be a really nice thing to say to someone. (This can be illustrated by my old friend Meilyr who used to innocently start up conversations with the phrase, "Do you come here often?" until he realised it sounded like he was chatting them up. He's very Welsh.)

Therefore I have a new quest: to find a short phrase (so no meticulously constructed chat up lines) that can be either one or the other - genuinely nice but never cheesy, or always cheesy and never sincere. Please help me. I just can't believe it's possible in our cynical, postmodern age. You have the opportunity to restore my faith in motherhood and apple pie.

Roger and I had an adventure on the way to Elly's on Saturday. Only he doesn't want me to write about it because he's embarrassed that it happened, even though if it had been me driving I'd have panicked completely and we'd have been goners for sure. He won't even park in his usual spot because he doesn't want his housemates to see the missing bumper.

Oohhh, but it was exciting (after the initial scariness)! I'm still chuffed that he got two new wheels for a fiver and we were on the road again within a couple of hours, no need for a mechanic because Roger fixes things. He's my hero.

Have learnt some cool tricks over the past week as well, which kind of balances out my lack of progress on the two wheeler. Figured out the Boston Mess in my lunch hour on Thursday, then in the park last night learnt to jump-mount my unicycle (before the crank fell off again). It was surprisingly easy and also painless. Highly recommended.