I told you it would get worse

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say over the past two weeks, oh no there’s been loads going on, I just haven’t had time to say it. I remember with fondness when I had time to write emails, watch TV, go shopping, write blogs, sit in my house and generally bless myself. It’s now just over twelve hours before I leave to go to Seoul but I am making a point of writing on here.

I’m doing messages in town, getting all sorts of essentials for the trip, you know the likes, face wipes, travel adaptor… I planned to get something to eat in this little place which also handily has wireless so I could blog. So right now I am sitting outside in lovely sunshine using free wireless, updating podcasts, downloading music, making playlists and writing here. All this while drinking my free refills of Pepsi. God bless America.

I don’t really know how to describe how I feel about going to Korea, nervous, scared, fear, dread are all good words. This is the whole reason I am here in the first place, my raison d'être, and it’s finally upon me. I really do just hope I can pull it off and nothing goes majorly wrong. I’m excited to see Jud and Dee, and am hoping that they will be able to put a smile on my face. I also am looking forward to putting names to some of the people I have been helping over the past few months. And then of course there’s staying in the super nice hotel, so you know, it’s not all bad!

But let me tell you, on my list of things to happen this week, nowhere was North Korea launching missiles there. That was a special treat, thanks Pyongyang! But the good news for you is that I have amassed plenty of material for my book, ‘The Secrets, Lies and Fancy Foot Work Behind the Meeting of World Wide Wesleyans (available in Number 9 come Christmas). I should imagine that there’ll be a special chapter on this event (working title ‘Missiles Keep Falling on My Head’).

In other news since I last blogged:

-I celebrated 4th of July. I had the day off, which I probably shouldn’t have had. It was a stereotypical July 4th, we played on the lake, had a barbeque and watched fireworks. We even had watermelon. It doesn't get much more stereotypical than that. I think we should have an Independence Day and celebrate with red, white and blue things…oh no wait, we’re not independent…is that what all the fuss is about...never mind.

-I got more bites. Boo hiss. Let me give you a timeline of one of my bites so you can sympathise laugh.
Hour 0-1 – bite is about the size of a 10p/quarter and has a white blister look to it. The greater area feels like really bad sunburn.
Hour 2-12 – blister dies down but bite changes to red and grows to the size of a Vaseline tin. The skin where the bite is has a kind of lump and is hard. Not so itchy.
Hour 12-48 bites continues to be red but grows to be the size of your palm. Enough heat comes off it to power a small town and so itchy it’s actually painful.
Hour 48-72 Bite begins to lose heat and redness but the desire to scratch remains.
Hour 72-168 The wanting to scratch slowly goes away but the pink mark where the bite is remains, as does the tightness of the skin.
And people say I'm a hypochondriac! Ha!

-I was gutted at last week’s exit of England in the World Cup. Anything is possible in football, except for two things, Germany will always win on penalties, England will always lose. I hold those truths to be self evident.

-But I was also disappointed at Germany losing to Italy. I had them to win the whole comptetion. Dammit.

-July’s playlist has no country music in it, well at the minute at least. It does have Oasis (Stop Crying Your Heart Out), The Fray (Over My Head), Kelly Clarkson (Breakaway), The Black Eyed Peas (Let’s Get It Started) Switchfoot (Dare You To Move) and New York Minute by Don Henley. Don't you love knowing what music I'm listening to.

-Last night I was listening to music on my iPod. I usually listen to playlists but this time had just hit play for it to pick a random song from my collection (which is well over 3000). Coldplay, The Scientist is what came on. Good choice Mr. iPod. As it ended I was thinking about starting it again because I like that song but couldn't be bothered to move to switch it back. Then the next song started and what was it? Coldplay, The Scientist but this time from a different album. What are the chances of that?! Ok, like one in three thousand but still. Am thinking about buying a lottery ticket, I'm clearly on a lucky streak.

-I’ve lost my memory card adaptor which I use for the memory card in my phone to put surreptitious photos on here. Which is more than slightly annoying as I had a few classics for you. Hopefully I’ll find it soon. It’s probably under all that crap on my desk which I should probably tidy at some point before I go. Or maybe not, know your limits Tina.

-This is old news but something I haven’t put on here, the lake that Maggie and I went to a couple of weeks ago was the lake that they used to film that bit in ‘Dirty Dancing’. How cool is that?!

-Again old news, but I’d like to publicly say thanks Linda for the package. You’re great! Return post in the mail.

Enough Pepsi for me, I should go and head back to the Lake to pack up everything. I’ll try to blog when I am away, but no promises. Probably the next time you hear from me I’ll be a whole year older. Which remains me, don’t send me massive presents. I have enough crap to ship home. Jewellery and money is fine though.