*yawns hugely* i just got back from my long weekend with peiyi, ZQ and xuefen. and i mean just. it's tuesday morning at 9.30am, and we woke up at 5.15am, got a cab to ayr station (we were staying at peiyi's lodging in the Hannah Research Institute) then took the train to Glasgow, where i left the other 2 to catch their trains to manchester and sandwich, while i trudged to the other train station to get my train to edinburgh. got a bus, ran upstairs and chucked my stuff, and came to work. *faint* i'm going to fall asleep standing before the day is out, cos we all were talking and watching xuefen pack til like 2am last night. and the previous 3 nights weren't particularly early ones either :p

but, it was a brilliant weekend. i'm probably going to go on about it a fair bit, so bear with me if possible, or don't read it *grin*

left at 5+am on friday morning for glasgow and met the other 3 there, took another train up to fort william, and a bus to loch lochy (no, i'm serious :p) youth hostel, where we had a very nutritious dinner of chocolate digestives, walkers crisps, twix and coke. *laugh* oh, and peaches and cherries. buy one get one free, so lots of peaches and cherries. i'm so sick of peaches at the moment :p we had quotas to finish per day *grin* anyway, we did a walk up the side of this mountain? hill? til we got a really gorgeous view of the loch, then went back and tried to plan out the next few days until we were about half dead.

took the bus up to inverness the next day, and got a tour bus down to loch ness and urquhart castle. walked around there a while, then got on the boat for a trip down loch ness, most of which we spent yakking rather than looking for Nessie :p back in the hostel, played card games til past midnight again (waking up at ~7am every morning mind you), and had an equally nutritious dinner of pizza and peaches. (again *faint*)

chocolate cake for breakfast the next morning, then we headed to fort william again to try and get up this gondola thing in the nevis range. unfortunately it was the mountain biking world cup or some such, and apparently was too crowded to bother trying. so we ended up shopping in fort william, bought a tartan scarf, (okay, 2 :p) one in a burberry's lookalike pattern, the thomas pattern i believe, and one the henderson pattern. (for the colour, I swear! *duck* :p) xuefen bought a tartan skirt as well as a scarf and like, mounds of shortbread. it was quite mad really, and poor ZQ was trudging along with us playing with his imaginary gremlins to entertain himself (don't ask :p) eventually got a train to glasgow, and then to ayr, where we stayed the night at peiyi's. another late night *yawn* our eyebags were all works of art. *grin*

were supposed to get up at 5am the next day, ended up getting up at 8, so decided to skip edinburgh and it's castle and just go to stirling. however we got distracted on our way between glasgow central and glasgow queen st stations, by a fantastic shoe shop called Shelly's, and we ended up getting in total 2 pairs of boots and a pair of suede moccasins. I got a gorgeous pair of ankle boots, a dark reddish brown, for �55, or around S$150, which i thought was quite alright. and they're really gorgeous. i wonder how many pairs of boots i'm going to end up bringing back :p However, the best pair was xuefen's, black suede knee high boots that I wanted so badly to get, but she's the same shoe size, so i'm going to borrow em :p and peiyi got her suede moccasins. none particularly cheap, but worth it. ZQ started amusing himself then by playing devil's advocate, and he would make a -very- good salesman *laugh* the service there was fantastic though, really really nice sales assistants that really know their stuff and try their best to match you up with the correct pair, but not giving you the feeling that they're going to be pissed off if you don't buy the shoes after trying on a million. singapore could learn a lot from them.

also, we ended up in nine west, and spent another �100 or so, not me though, i behaved myself :p mainly cos the gorgeous trench coat i saw was only available in XS. bah. was very mad. still am. *grin* it was down from �175 to �31.75! or like, S$466 to S$85! *cry* it was gorgeous *sniff* but, xuefen got that coat, and peiyi and her bought the same bag. oh well, at least we're claiming VAT back, should be about 15% or so.

shopped a bit more and almost missed our train :p but by the time we got to the station, we were looking like 'tai tai's' back from a day of shopping. and ZQ was carrying most of the bags. :p chucked the stuff in a locker in the station and headed to stirling, where we missed the castle cos we were a bit too late, and paying �7 to rush around for half an hour was a bit too much. so we grabbed one of those open top tourist buses and ended up at the Wallace Monument. it was hell to walk up, first up the hill a long way, then 246 steps to the top. on a spiral staircase. we were all quite quite dizzy by the time we got up there. but it was a beautiful view, well worth the climb. and in rooms in the tower going up there was the history of William Wallace, and the battle of Stirling Bridge etc. it's been like a long history lesson since i got here really :p

then, we had to try and find our way back to the railway station, which was pretty hard cos we were miles away from it, and it was basically farmland and residential areas. oh, and the university of stirling, which has a nature reserve in its grounds, as well as a small castle. ZQ busied himself chasing the rabbits (again, don't ask *grin*) and getting swans to peck him :p we didn't seem to be particularly worried that we could get stranded there for some reason, but we managed to get a bus back to the station and back to ayr. tried on all the stuff we bought :p and eventually got to sleep, after yet another highly nutritious meal of KFC. *snicker*

but seriously, the countryside around here is beautiful. stirling was also a very pretty city, all the victorian buildings etc. but the train rides, especially to and from fort william took you past the most beautiful countryside, lots of lochs and mountains and mist, and some snow on the mountains. really beautiful scenery.

the best thing about the trip was probably the company though, cos quite a few times our original schedule got screwed up a fair bit, and we spent hours trying to figure out where to go, but never argued or got seriously pissed off, and we managed to have hell lots of fun, ending up with loads of inside jokes that are going to seriously confuse people when we get back :p

but i have to admit i was fairly surprised, because back in school i would probably never have talked to them at all, peiyi i knew, she was in my LT for a year, exchanged like 2 sentences, and xuefen was in her class, but i didn't even know she existed! lol. ZQ I prolly would never have spoken to either. but we got along really well, and i'm so looking forward to our next trip, which'll be in a month's time, to Bath, and then 2 weeks later to the lake district. to be honest, i would so much have preferred to be paired with xuefen, because jieru and i just dont get on, we're just too different. and xuefen is having problems with jessie as well. we were wondering how in heck dr gandhi managed to pair us up this way. *sigh* oh well, at least i have these trips to look forward to :p

we'll also almost definitely be going to paris at the end of august, have decided to skip london, just meet there and chuck our luggage somewhere, hopefully with one of my family members there that i haven't met :p, and then head to paris. do disneyland *giggle* act like big kids for a day, and do the eiffel tower, louvre etc. and maybe 3 days elsewhere, at the moment we're looking at Spain. i hope it works out =) but definitely the first day of school is going to be a disaster for the 3 of us flying on saturday, myself, ZQ and Peiyi, because we're getting to singapore at 7pm sunday night, and we're going to be completely jet lagged :p

this is so long i'm going to stop, though i still have stuff to say *grin* and i should prolly get some work done too, though i think at the moment i haven't anything really to do. oh well. :p

jumped at 2:18 AM