Jakface in the UK: CARDIFF - PERTH/STIRLINGSHIRE ROAD TRIP

So much to say, so much to say!

First off I must tell you of Tchai Ovna, which is a tea house in a weird part of Glasgow where you have to go down some creepy streets to get to, and it's basically a shed in someone's backyard that they decorated all hippie like. They have close to 50 kinds of teas you can choose from, ranging from green teas, indian teas, fruit teas, Russian, black teas.. it's cool! I've gotten to try a couple things from there so far, like the best one is the Moroccan Mint Apple, which is ABSOLUTELY FINE. They had another one called Fairies Blood, which is very strong, fruity, minty herbal. A lot of my recent tea count has been from that place!

Also went with a new friend to his friend's birthday party, where we went Go-Karting (my first time) which was HELLA FUN! Totally Mario-Kartesque, got the helmet, outfit and everything! Too bad I don't have pictures from it. It was my first time but I got 5th out of 9 experienced go Karters, go me! And had a really good lap time! :D We also did lazer tag, which I am DREADFUL at, I got dead last out of 17 people, some of them being seemingly blonde petite girls...sigh. I think my tactics of "storming everywhere and everything while shouting BLUE THUNDERRRRRR at the top of my lungs" doesn't work so hot..)

Also saw Sherlock Holmes with Caz last week, which was cool! The movie itself I enjoyed but it was still missing something so I didn't enjoy it to the fullest extent of Robert Downey Jr.'s sexiness that I could!

Anyway, a couple weekends ago, Kody, Caz and I went on a ROAD TRIP to the outskirts of Perth and Stirlingshire, to visit a couple of pretty places and basically just hang out in the countrysides! (because they were NICE and the BIRDS and the SUN was almost down from the TOP of the SKY !?!?!)

Kody likes driving fast on scary roads that have no fences on them :| but that seems to be a normal thing in the UK where people are so used to driving on these roads and they are ace at it.. it's still scary! The long road we drove on was called Braco Road. (Google it!) I saw Stirling Castle and the (phallic) Wallace monument from a distance! We went to a place called "Deil's Cauldron". Deil is another word for Devil. Had gorgeous scenery with all these dead, red ferns covering the hills. Also went to a waterfall called Fairy Falls in South Lochearnhead. Got dangerously close, but it was worth it! Really had an amazing, thrilling feeling with the powerful water flow making wisps of freshwater flecked air fly into my face! Whoa... just made an alliteration there. Apparently in the Spring/Summer Equinox when it turns midnight, you can see lights around the falls that look like fairies!

We also went to Kody's parents house in St. Fillans which they have a private dock on Loch Earn. It was quite cold and it was definitely not swimming weather, or even staying outside for longer than a few minutes weather.. but it was definitely beautiful! Afterwards we went to the small town of Calendar, where we hit up a couple of neat shops. I went to a Celtic Jewelry store where I got some gorgeous triskele earrings and a triskele necklace, so much better quality than anything I'd find at home, and pretty darn cheap, too! Another store we visited was a Shell shop run by a very chatty, nice Scottish man. After Caz and Kody bought a couple of shells, we headed back home!

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CARDIFF
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A couple of months ago, a couple of friends back in London (Chris and Andy) mentioned that John Barrowman was doing a Pantomime in Cardiff, Wales, and had invited me to come along. I didn't want to miss an opportunity to be in the same room as John Barrowman while he sings and prances around gay-ly, so I told them to buy me a ticket.

Cardiff is where a lot of Torchwood and Doctor Who is shot, contrary to what you might be thinking (ie, London), so I saw a lot of places where some episodes were shot (the mall where they shot the mannequin episode, a chip shop where Martha was in, etc) and from Torchwood, we went to the "secret gate" which is on the docks at a wharf (which has now been turned into an Ianto Jones memorial shrine), and we also went to the most famous Torchwood place, which is where the secret slab is outside of that huge theatre building with the giant writing on it. (See pictures, you'd recognize it if you saw the show!)

The Cardiff trip itself was pretty successful. I was picked up by Chris, Andy and Sadie at Cardiff Central train station where we then walked around a bit to scope out the area. We ended up going to Nando's right away because I was starved to death from not eating on a 7 hour train journey. I ended up eating half a chicken, mashed potatoes, a corn on the cob, and Sadie's half a chicken wrap. XD;; Afterwards we hit up a couple of pubs, both of them being Wetherspoons. The first one we went to was a gay friendly 'poons with 2 floors. We lounged in the upper floor's comfy couch seats where I had a WKD Blue and a huge plate of profiteroles (PRO-FIT-TER-OOOH-LEES!) (ice cream filled cream puffs with chocolate drizzled on them) that I barely shared. 8D~ Chris had to run to catch his train back to Swansea, and Sadie, Andy and I called it an early night and went to our pretty ghetto hotel in a garbage-littered part of Cardiff. Oh well, it was cheap!

The next day, Andy, Sadie and I had breakfast at Caffe Nero, where we were served by a one-man show - he was nuts, serving all the customers himself and making all the drinks! He had crazy dreadlocks which must have given him A.D.D. Spider genes. I had a blueberry muffin and a chai latte. We scoped out a Wales shop, where I bought a Wales touque and a flag sticker for my laptop. Andy bought a sheep plushie that we had plans for later. Then we checked out the large, two floored Cardiff Market. We hung around looking at the booths while waiting for Chris and Neil to arrive from Swansea. We tried Welsh Cakes (like flat raisin english muffins covered in sugar). Looked for a specifically titled book in all the Harlequin Romance novels with similar titles (tried to find 'Italian Billionaire's Virgin Bride' but ended up having to settle for 'Italian Millionaire's Virgin Wife'.)

We escaped the market where Andy had written "Ianto" on the side of the sheep he purchased. From there, we proceeded to have random adventures in malls, like Andy putting 1man1jar on the macbook in the mac store (DON'T LOOK THIS UP IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS I'M SERIOUS), trying to find a smoothie place, Andy sending horrible pictures to people's bluetooth on their mobile phones... We had lunch at an Irish pub where I had a Steak and Guiness pie, chips and peas. (I ATE ALL OF THE PIES.) We found some statues to pose Ianto the sheep with, like the two giant fists (lol) and the "Stargate" where we had a good laugh because some young army cadets were hanging outside out of it with a 'malp' looking device. We took pictures of us jumping through the Stargate, and throwing Ianto through it. We visited an Antique store where I found a Sherlock Holmes soundtrack CD...go figure! And they had a comic store inside with a Doctor Who merchandise treasury on the top floor! They had so much stuff.... I found some stickers, a Dalek bag and a David Tennant notebook in a £1 bin which I promptly purchased! Yay stickers! Also, there was a militaria section where a guy had Russian guns and Nazi daggers and swords - spoils from the war! :O There was a section that had bags, medikits, jackets, badges, patches, lots of stuff from all the countries who participated in the wars! I bought an armband that has a medic symbol on it as well as a Union Jack and a Scotland Flag emblem. It's recent, but it's cool looking! The boys said it looked like a thong from the way it's designed... hahaha.

Neil drove us all to Barry Island, where during the day they have faires and rides, and it's right on the beach. We went after 5 when everything was closed, but we did manage to waste time in a couple of arcades where we tried to win stuff in the 2p pushing coins game. Also had Neil try to win me a Scottish Terrier plush, but he didn't get it. Took some amazing pictures of the beach and sky with long exposure. We also got a ton of free chips, pies and sausages from a chippy that was closing! So yet again, I got to 'eat all the pies' except I didn't really touch it. haha. Also, some person was setting Chinese Lanterns up into the sky (the kind where you light the base on fire and the heat takes it up like an air balloon) They filled the sky with pretty orange lights!

We headed for the posh area of Cardiff on the water after that, where I got a Starbucks. We visited the Ianto shrine where the presumed 'outside of Torchwood' is filmed, and we talked to the theatre with the huge glowing letters on the outside. After taking hilarious photos of Ianto being silly, we went back to the hotel where we had delicious Whittards Dreamtime tea, and called it a night after Sadie, Neil and Andy tried on Sadie's "Russell from Up" outfit she bought at the Disney store that was made for 5 year olds. HILARIOUS.

The next day, Sadie, Andy and I had breakfast at a cafe, where I had an apple blueberry juice and a bacon and cheese panini. We wandered around until we had to meet up with Chris and Neil. I managed to buy a very pretty pinup rockabilly dress for only £20! We also went to a Welsh crafts store with the world's largest carved wooden Welsh Love Spoon! (see pictures) I got Steph and Terri presents from that store. We went back to check on Cardiff Castle which is situated in the middle of downtown, but we figured it was too expensive because it was £9 just to get in. We went back to "Torchwood" where we tried to find a place to eat that had lamb on the menu, but surprisingly our search was fruitless because it seems Cardiff likes their Italian restaurants more than traditional Welsh food, and it is also "cool" for restaurants to close between 4-6:30pm. :| WTF. We ended up going to a chinese/thai food restaurant that was completely horrible. I had peanut satay chicken and the chicken was so overdone, and 'braised lamb with ginger and spring onion' which came as a slop on a plate that tasted like slop on a plate. Worst £15 I've ever spent so far ughghgh.

We went back to the hotel to drop stuff off and get changed to see BARROWMAN! The theatre was pretty, with crowded, uncomfortable seats. We were pretty high up so we couldn't see too well, but it was still hilarious. Barrowman flashing his butt in shiny tights, haha yes! There was a questionable "ice skating of the FUTUR" part with a Russian skater dude who looked like Evgeni Plushenko. However, it was all made worth it when I saw John Barrowman sing "Every little thing she does is magic". :D

The next day I bought a chunk of welsh lamb leg for Kody to cook, some fruit for breakfast, had a chocolatey fika with cheesecake and hot chocolate at Caffe Nero, then a 7 hour train ride later, I was back in Glasgow, where Caz and Kody went to go meet me but didn't get a block outside of their apartment before I arrived. Hehe!

It's good to be back in Glasgow, which seems to be my home at the moment! <3 Edinburgh trip on the weekend though! Very exciting, going to go bead shopping and buy a muffin tin so Caz and I can make cupcakes and muffins! Squeeeee~