So... It's Tuesday now... and I have to apologise, I've been pretty useless at updating this journal.

Mostly the apology is for being late with my amazing adventure update ^^

Last Wednesday I met up with our lovely =uvnote (gorgeous little creature that she is) and the aussie personage of ~AleksanderZee

Of course, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. They kept me waiting at our meeting place for an hour... (), they made me run all over the place, up and down stairs and escalators () and they made me miss not one, but two trains home...!! ( )

Alright, I have to make this clear, right from the off:

Despite all the above mentioned, I had an A-grade Fantastic time. I'm serious, these are two of the sweetest DArtists I've ever met. (Well, considering the only one I know from my neck of the woods is ~bitterscorpion and he's definitely *not* sweet, that doesn't really have much perspective...) However! They're probably two of the nicest people I've met full-stop.

Over here in the UK for all of about a week, and they stop to see little old me? That's pretty damn nice of them

Anyway, we met, we visited two of London's great surplusses; museums. The Natural History and the Science. Both were cool, and there was plenty to be interested by. Yet I found myself constantly distracted by these two. It's very hard to appreciate dead lizards and fish when there's two new, and fantastic, friends to talk to.

Alex is a quiet guy, or he was just a bit reserved around a big, noisy English guy, but he has a fair dry sense of humour that makes you smile without realising it. Massive personality, surfer-dude looks, and a major surprise to find that he's an avid hiker, which means he'd fit in well with the gang over here ^^ Also, a little older than he looks, don't patronise him or bad things happen... I'm not sure what they are, but I'm keeping a weather eye out over my shoulder even now he's out of the country... ^^

Melinda is simply too sweet for words. Slim, diminutive and exquisite, she has a penchant for light skirts, heavy hats and orange scarves, that and, in a rather distracting manner, she rises six inches or so off the floor every now and again while talking to you (ballet skills, standing on point beats out standing on tip-toe any day, and she's exceptionally graceful because of them). And she has the lightest, clearest eyes I've ever... had the privelage to look into... [glazed look into distance, remembering]
Hell, if it wasn't for Alex, as my chaperon there I don't know what I would have done... and hell with the consequences. (Now I just pray that the other people who know me find that funny, or I'm going to be in trouble )

So yeah, back on track, it was only a single day, and we spent most of it in big museums, but the weather was fantastic by English standards, and I got one of the best hugs I've had all year when it came time to say goodbye.

Oh, and let's not let me forget, I'm going to have to post a little cartoon soon (I've got a poster to finish before then) of our... misadventure.

To elucidate: Bus services the world over are numbered for their route. We were hoping to go to Victoria Street Bus Depot, and we were told that the No.38 bus would take us there. Upon walking into the street, lo and behold we saw the 38 there on the other side! It was just pulling away, so we ran for it, caught it, and I immediately got chucked back off again because the London busses don't take cash for tickets anymore; you have to pay at a bus-stop and show your ticket when you get on. Luckily I got thrown off *at* one of these machines, so I was able to pay and get back on again before the traffic moved.

So we have some time to stand around and chat, I make as few verbal atrocities as possible in the given time before we look up at the street names, to see how long we have left, and notice... that we can't find them on the map on our route...

WE HAD CAUGHT THE 38 GOING *AWAY* FROM VICTORIA STREET!!!!!@!!11!!!@!£TREES%!!!!!!

So we leapt from the bus with the speed borne of immense surprise, luckily it had just stopped at a bus stop or we'd have been mightily inconvenienced, and we waited the required five minutes for one going in the opposite direction.

We proceeded to be an hour late for Melinda and Alex getting to the Theater, and an hour late for me to get either of the two reasonably timed trains home (incidentally, I got back okay guys, and I even got in a burger and fries while waiting, and my ride wasn't too put out about me getting there at about... 11:20. It's all good )

Yes... cartooniness is needed to fully represent this... ^^

I also, as I stated earlier, received one of the best hugs of the year during our rather rushed and frazzled farewells at the bus station (the depot was right on the corner between the tube station and the theater, oddly enough). You guys come back soon now, you hear?!

Anyway, I'm back on the band-wagon again, and I'm planning my next outing to the capital in the form of the MCM Expo next month. I'll be attending with the cast of artists from Gashu-group.net (check them out, they're awesome and amateur and absolutely one-of-a-kind all of them) including, and I hope this to be accurate, ~Swazzo-mk2 and :devehassangraham:

For those of you in the area, or attending, I'll be the average tall guy in jeans and hiking boots and a large, old digital camera wandering around gawking like the country bumpkin I am. Also, large prints of the cover of SLL Book Three are going to be on sale from the GG.net stand (yes, they have a stand) along with posters from their regular artists and even a few large-scale framed prints of Hassan's work, absolute top-of-the-range artistic material, on sale for unseemly amounts of money. I'll be wearing one of Swazzo's shirts too, so you don't mistake me for somebody else (look at his page for the link to his Redbubble page, look at his shirts, then you'll know. Do eet noaw!)

Until later guys, I'll see how many of you I can meet. Speaking of which; new heading under the Friend's section!
FN! I love you all!