Aloha! My time in the UK is steadily drawing to a close. It is kind of weird really, as it is finally starting to dawn on me. Up till now I have just treated the whole idea with a degree of nonchalance, coupled with a mild excitement about seeing a new country and meeting new people. After this past weekend it finally hit me that to see these new places, I have to leave the old ones and to make these new friends, I have to give up my old ones. You’d think this would be obvious and it is, but you just tend to keep it at the back of your mind and not pay it much thought until you actually have to say goodbye to people. It’s annoying enough as it is not being able to see my friends as often as I would like, but a year is going to be quite a stretch. I’ve decided to just think of it as once around the sun, as that way it doesn’t seem quite so bad. On the plus side, I am embarking on an excellent adventure (sans time travelling phone box) and when I return I will even more awesome than when I left, if that is indeed possible.

Anyway, let’s get back to the task at hand and get you all up to speed with last weekend – although most of the few people that read this were there, so it is a little pointless; but it has to be done.

As mentioned earlier I spent the previous weekend in Hull. It was my last trip there before I leave for Japan. I left work on Friday at about 3ish and got the trains towards Hull. The trains all ran on time and everything went according to plan, which was nice. I got off the train early at Goole to be greeted by Louise, so that I could go and see her new flat – which was very nice. I then got a lift with her to Hull where we met up with the other attendees for the weekend – Rami and Rebecca; as well as permanent residents: Tom, Ed, Leigh and Chris (who is currently in between residences). Drinking started soon after arrival and continued well into the night. We went to Pozition, which was dead; so we left and went to Attic, which was quite good. By that point I was already beyond any ability to comprehend either my surroundings or my own actions, so I indulged in numerous shots of various natures. This was blatantly a mistake, but I couldn’t face dancing and I am an idiot. After leaving Attic, we all went to bed, where I slept for about 2-3 hours before waking up again at 7:30 on what was now Saturday morning.

As one would expect, my body was not thanking me for my attempts to destroy it and I felt like a walking catastrophe. I staggered into the shower in a futile attempt to wake up and not keel over. I decided that my best bet was to walk into town and get some fresh air as this would undoubtedly gratify me with an instant reprieve from my current state of nausea. This could not have been further from the truth. In my, possibly still drunken, attempts to leave the house I woke up Rami, who subsequently decided that he would not leave me to stagger into town alone and joined me on my journey. I think I managed a whole 3 steps out of the front door before the goblins in my stomach began to cackle maniacally and begin shutting down my internal organs one by one.

We mainly just mooched around in town, looking in the odd shop or two and strolling round the wharf. We had a good look around Toys R Us, which was fun – but then toys always are. Whilst in there we found a small, electronic 20 questions game which claims to be able to read minds. After some speculation and scoffing, Rami and I decided to give it a go to see if it was all it claimed to be. I can only surmise that it is a toy conceived by either clairvoyants or witches or both. After it managed to guess that we were thinking of both a bus and then shoes, Rami decided that he had to buy one as it was clearly magic. It went on to get plenty of use throughout the weekend, especially by Leigh who wanted to see if he could somehow corrupt it with his perverse mind.

At lunchtime Rami and I were picked up by Louise and Helen. Rami was dropped back off at the house to then get lunch with everyone else at the Gardeners pub, whilst Louise, Helen and myself trekked to Hull city centre to find somewhere nice to eat and catch up as the three of us hadn’t hung out together for quite a long time. We found what appeared to be a nice looking pub in old town, so we popped in and ordered some food. Unfortunately the pleasant appearance of the pub managed to belie the utter horror that was the food. I can not remember the name of the pub – it was ‘The Ale…’ and something I believe. It was most likely ‘The Ale (is the only thing you can safely ingest in this pub)’. Fortunately lunch still proved to be excellent as it was great for the three of us to be able to hang out again and we just found the dire state of the food to be a source of constant amusement.

Upon leaving the pub we drove around for a little while before going over to Helen’s house. After sitting there and enduring the second coming of my hangover, Louise and I said our goodbyes to Helen and headed back to the house.

A short while later Louise headed back to Goole and then the rest of us went out for a Chinese at our beloved Jade Palace. We then trekked back to the house for a brief spell and Rebecca dropped Rami off at the Gardeners to see some of his other mates who were in the area. The rest of us then drove over to the Humber Bridge to go see the fireworks display, as there had been a 4 day festival at the bridge to celebrate it having been open for 25 years or something along those lines. The fireworks were really good and you can get a vague idea of what they looked like in the pictures below.

After the fireworks we returned to the house and we were rejoined by Rami. We then finally opened a bottle of champagne which my brother had given me for my 21^st birthday and it had been sitting at the house in Hull since the days that I had lived there. We had been meaning to drink it for such a long time, but to be honest I am kind of glad we didn’t get round to it till this weekend – perhaps it was destined to wait until my last weekend. After that we all chilled out for a little while before retiring for the evening.

On Sunday I once again woke up decidedly early, although this time at the slightly later time of 8:30am. Leigh was already up and about to head into town for work, so I got him to give me and a reluctant Tom a lift into town. This was because I wanted to (a) buy some trainers I had my eye on, and (b) try out a chocolate and toffee Danish pastry which Tom had highly recommended. Unfortunately neither plan worked out overly well. For a start the shops don’t open till 10:30am on a Sunday, so Hull was like a ghost town. Therefore Tom and I decided to go and sit down by the wharf for an hour and a half and watched the cool boats go by. It was then that I decided that I need to get myself an awesome boat, as the property ladder really doesn’t appeal to me. We then went to the trainer shop, which had sold out of my size in the colour I wanted. Our attempts to get a Danish was also foiled by the fact that Cooplands bakers don’t open on a Sunday. In the end we got brunch from Marks and Spencers and sat in the park and ate it. On our trek back to the bus station we noticed that there was an open Cooplands after all, so we popped in praying that they would have the legendary Danish pastry. Unfortunately they didn’t have any, but we did get to try and rather fantastic cake called a Russian Slice. It is a marbled slice of cake with strawberry jam, which is then absolutely sodden with rum and has fondant icing on top. As you can no doubt imagine - it was amazing.

We then popped into Debenhams, who were having a rather excellent sale. I picked up a tie that I had wanted since my last visit to Hull. Unfortunately an awesome Animal polo shirt that I had also wanted was practically the only item in the store still at full price.

We then got a bus to Kingswood Retail Park to meet up with Ed, Rebecca and Rami to go see Superman Returns, which Ed had booked us all tickets for the day before. It was a really enjoyable film and an excellent addition to the Superman saga. We then picked up a KFC bucket and headed back to the house.

Two pieces of chicken later, it was time for me to leave. Saying farewell to everyone was quite sad, but I am sure it won’t be too long before I am back and hopefully they will all have an excellent year whilst I am away.

Today I was back at work, which to be honest, I really wasn’t in the mood for. I didn’t feel like feigning cheeriness and enthusiasm all day. Luckily, as the job forces me to do that, it actually turned out to be quite beneficial as it proved a good distraction. I also ordered my laptop at long last today. I paid a bit more for it to get next day delivery, so all being well I will have it tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am heading down to London for the day to sort out my Visa for Japan, so I will no doubt have the joy of standing in a queue at the Japanese embassy. Still, I will be sure to update you all about it when I get back.