The Book of Sifty

Tania vs Tanya 9:00AM

So back in London. Blurrgh. Sitting in an internet cafe near Charing Cross station, stayed on Jono's couch last night, so I had to be up and out by 8am since Jono and Vic have to be at work and they don't have a spare key. At least the internet access is cheap this early.

So yesterday i lept on a train from Guildford to London. I was told it was 35 minutes so i sat back and watch the houses go past.. some small bits of country side hoon past.. man Guildfords huge I thought.. more houses.. then we rolled into Clapham Junction. Hang on! thats in f**kin London.. so its seems Guildford is basically in London too.

At Waterloo station I find a payphone and ring The Strood, where I used to stay in London. A girl answers.. 'hi whos this?', 'Tanya', hmm doesn't sound at all like the Tanya i know.. still must be.. oh well i ask if its cool that i roll around and check out what the hell is in my suitcase.. shes like well i suppose so? Weird. Oh well 20 minutes later i ring the bell at The Strood, (should have been about 10 minutes, but i didn't take the most optimum route.. infact it just invloved aiming for Guys hospital tower block and walking till I recognised a street).
Marcus answers the door.
Holy crap. Marcus was supposed to be in Eastern Europe somewhere! 'Tom mate. Hows it going? lets head down the pub for a few pints'

So its turns out the Tanya on the phone isn't the Tanya I knew from 5 months ago. Shes a mate of Veronikas from NZ. Whos now sharing a room with Veronika, Marcus's old room infact. Explains why she was a little wierd on the phone. So I'd been in contact with Marcus, infact he very nearly made it to see me in Colorado.. but got stuck in New York.

mind if we have our photo taken with your Storm Troopers? 9:34AM

So yeah the UK is a bit of a shock to the system after being in Colorado for five months. Firstly lots of people, lots of cars, lots of houses and no open space that isn't a park or developed farmland. No hills. No quite sure what I'm doing here currently. But hopefully that will become evident in the next couple of days. Marcus is also only back here for a few weeks, and hes hoping to do a drug trial again. The last one he did earned him '1500 or so. It was residential, i.e. they feed you and you sleep in a ward, he got 2 days off in 10 I think. Pretty full on but at '100 a day, with no other expenses and no tax thats a pretty good score. Still they don't come around very often and there are quite few other people trying to get on them. Theres also a blood donation place where they pay you cash.. which might be worth a look.

Anyway here are a couple of other things I might write about here while I can be bothered and have some time to waste..

In Las Vegas we drove to the Tourism Office. This was one of about three 'Official' Tourist Offices we saw.. but they sorted us a room for one night. It was $25 each for the night and was in the massive 'penthouse' suite of a hotel (ie the top floor). Okay not the most flash hotel, but it wasn't at all grotty, and was galaxies better than the dodgy looking hostels. Not t o mention being about half a block off the strip..

Anyway outside the tourist office are a bunch of Storm Troopers, Darth Maul, and a Imperial Military Officer milling around watching another Storm Trooper finish getting dressed. Okay this opportunity can't be missed so I rock up to the officer and ask if he would mind if we had our photo taken with 'his' Storm Troopers. He said .. ""Sure .. but if you wait ten minutes we are about to walk over under that 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign over there.. and you can get that in too"".
Excellent

So we wander across to the gravel verge between the 4 lane highway that runs through Vegas, escorted by four Storm Trooper, Darth and a Officer.