Hokkaido

Hey everyone, how's it going? So I bet you're all getting geared up for Christmas and New Years, I'm heading to South Korea for both and it's going to be frickin cold. I'm facing an extended period of frozen extremeties, yeehah!

Speaking of cold, let me fill you in a little more on Hokkaido. It was seriously fun, but came close to not happening at all... I'll explain. I'll start at the beginning. Stu and I bought tickets for all 3 of us to go to Sapporo for 3 days, staying in a gorgeous hotel right in the smack-damn centre of town. Last Tuesday we left the house in a flurry of excitement and last-minute packing, amid my rather repetitive chorus of, "Stu, have you got the tickets?" To which he replied many times over with increasing annoyance, "of course!". Cut to the train speeding towards Kobe airport and a new, more humble, almost embarrassed tone, "Mez, I forgot the tickets." I looked at him, scrutinising his face, checking for signs of suicidal tendancies, the only possible explanation for such a lame joke at this late stage. We were atleast and hour and a half from home, with only and hour until the plane took off. He wasn't joking and the blood in my body began to boil. For the next hour he negotiated with our travel agent, the airline staff and God, while Pipi and I took out our nervous, frustrated energy by jumping on the spot.

To his credit, Stu came up with a solution to our minor setback. Well, a solution of sorts. he ended up forking out almost $2000 to purchase new plane tickets, for which he will only be reimbursed half. If I hadn't asked him 50 times whether he had the tickets, I would almost feel sorry for him. Actually I felt sorry for him anyway, it was a lot of money. He was really good about it, mainly because he knew it was entirely his own fault. The rest of the holiday was lovely, and we all resolved to forget the "unfortunate ticket incident" ever happened, not difficult considering the massive amounts of alcohol we all consumed during our time in the frozen north.

After Sapporo we all headed to Kyoto for an afternoon of temples and other worthy, historical sites, punctuated by shopping. Pipi found the perfect pair of boots, I rejected an imperfect pair of jeans, Stu sat patiently in the "boyfriend chair" while we marvelled over hats and bags. Japan has definitely made me into a consumer, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit.

More later folks, have to go now, I'm entertaining my neighbours Lauren and Jeff with the cheese Pipi (with the benificence of mum) smuggled into the country, delicious! Love you all, more later. Mezball signing off.