I, being the lucky sod that I am, was granted the wonderful gift of time as the lovely Sapphire's house for a few days whilst I was in London. During said time, I was given a room all to my self (having been sleeping on my mate's couch in Oxford for the previous two nights this was absolute heaven), fed excellent food which was prepared by Sapphire's mum (double thumbs up on the food and an additional thumb for the endless supply for alcoholic beverages
) and a constant stream of Beast Wars ranting and viewing material.First night we got no viewing done (well I blame myself for heading halfway to Wales after a man in a funny hat gave me the wrong directions. Plus side, I managed to score a meal of tea and scones along with a powerpoint for my shiny new laptop which led to my third episode being typed up #cough cough# see console #cough cough#
) So after traipsing around the english countryside and passing Oxford a number of times throughout the day (all the while receiving worried phone calls from Sapph who is such a sweetie/cutie) I strolled out of the correct station to see Sapph and Razor, along with Sapph's mum who had brought her ever trusty car.After getting settled in to my new sanctuary, I difted about and crashed on the couch. Before I new it I was armed with a beer (compliments to Sapph's mum for going to so much effort) and ranting at my heart's content about Beast Wars to Sapphire and Razor.... ranting is the word as I appeared to hog a whole bunch of the conversation time. My apologies to all involved for stealing the show.
Then the lovely dinner of roast meat and vegies accompanied by a few more beers and my ranting and raving group extended to Sapphire's champion mum and cool sister (she did the polite thing and not run away screaming from the whacky tall Australian which had taken up residence in the house. Always a commendable effort 
) and my subject matter extended from just Beast Wars to any random thought which collided with another whilst my mouth continued to make noise (again my apologies). It got late, everyone went to sleep and I finished watching Eragon on my laptop before drifting off to sleep."I was awakened by a faint angleic voice...." then I was really awakened by Razor standing in the doorway asking what I would like for breakfast. With my usual, throat-filled with carpet voice that I get in the morning when I wake up I agreed that his scrambled eggs and bacon concept was brilliant. After breakfast and such, I was glad to get most of my voice back. Then Razor, Sapphire and I headed out for a day of adventure in London. Giant ferris wheels, a river which kept yelling "JETSKI!" at me, a really funny announcer-guy on the ferry ride, a super awesome park, a giant needly thing at the centre of the universe (which Sapphire has a photo of me straddling), a silver knight in shining armour hand puppet and much money later, we returned to the station to head home. Delays meant that the usual lines were out of use and we jumped on a train, climbed up some stairs, caught another train, fought the Balrog, ran a bit, caught another train, climbed slightly less stairs, caught another train and then the one ring was... wait... then we were on our way home. The long way. The great thing about this was I got to have a good ol conversation with the lovely Sapphire while Razor commenced reading Dune. It was cool to delve into our respective characters and discover more about each other (and it was talking, and you guys all know about me and the talking thing). So after exchanged war stories and subsequent rants, we finally made it to the station. A pub meal later and we were home. We watched some BW (mainly voice actor interviews and the voice actor commentary which Sapph's mum and sis sat in on just because it was so funny "It's Gary and he's a monkey" Scott is a crazy crazy boy... coming from me thats saying something). At the end of that, we started reading some fan fic and I loved Sapph's theme park story (tee hee Inferno and Megs in a haunted house) and I tried to read my fan fic however my voice was getting really hoarse. Thankfully the bath was free by this stage and I got washed up. Sapphire had headed off to sleep as she had warned before so no more fan fic for the night, so I decided to head downstairs and do some movie watching before going to sleep. I brought my half finished bottle of red wine with me and I got myself confortable on my bed and.....
I woke the following morning with a half-full glass of wine sitting next to me. I looked at it strangely and realised I had passed right out the following night. Fortunately the day we had ahead was a simple one of wandering about town, visiting the Roald Dahl museum and general chilling out. When we arrived home with our frozen bounty of food we plonked ourselves down and got some good ol BW watchin done. I finished off that last pesky remainder of the red wine and we had another lovely dinner of chicken prepared by Sapphire's mum. When then all sat around and watched the Godfather (where I added some translation for the sections which were left un-subbed. Being the Calabrese dialect it was quite easy to decipher and I was glad to be of assistance to the non-italians in the room). Then it was time for bed.
Saturday morning and my time was drawing closer to its end. We spent the day wandering about Windsor Castle (again a million and one thanks to Sapphire's mum for all the driving that she did throughout my stay) which was a hugely awe-inspiring sight. I think Sapphire now knows that if she ever wants me to shut up, she can drag me into an impressive castle and observe. I won't lie, so I'll admit that there were a few teary eyes at the grandeur of it all. A chord was struck within me with all the knights and burial grounds showing the chivalrous age gone by and I will never forget it. Additionally it provided me with excellent inspiration for the fan fic. After the nice jaunt, we returned home and had another tasty meal... for the life of me I simply cannot remember it right now, my apologies to the chef. The night, we were supposed to have a group chat with VampireBA, however the timing of our dinner coincided with her online time and we unfortunately missed her. Fortunately I was blessed with a brief phone call with her whilst her and Sapph were catching up. Very nice girl I look forward to meeting her in person (along with everyone else here of course). After handing her back to Sapph, I ran up to her room and tromped back down with TM2 Megs in hand. I shook it in the air and pointed at it excitedly meaning "Would you like me to transform this action figure which you had previously explained to me before had caused you much grief and frustration and which I have just recently gained experience with transforming thanks to my recently acquired Lord Cryotek figure?" She gave me the thumbs up which said "OK" so I stormed back into her room where Razor was tinkering around on the computer. Within 15-30 seconds (or thereabouts) Megs was standing proudly, dragon head in the air, atop her selving. I then went crazy. Silver entered Transformer interior decorator mode and Sapph returned to see a number of her figures, transformed, posed and repositioned. I then stopped with an Optimus Primal in my hands and looked sheepishly back saying "I got kind of carried away." She saw what I had done and went "Awesome!" as she realised what had changed and kept doing that fun little jump thing at every shelf. I then proceeded to rearrange the entire set whilst Razor told me about some of his fan fic concepts. It all sounds like an excellent concept and I really suggest he put the hours in and get it moving. Would make for a great story. (Oh I forgot to mention before that Razor had read his romance epsiode to us which was very impressive... which actually makes me believe that there are some continuity issues with my story... oh well.... everything is there I hope). So with the Maximals on one side, the Preds on the other, TM Megs sporting his Golden disk reader and Silver and Blackarachnia in a tender embrace I headed off to sleep.
Sunday, cursed Sunday. Why is it that the good times never last long enough? I was really saddened to leave this wonderful world behind. We had a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, cereal and coffee to farewell my humble self (to quote Megs) and sat around for a little while chatting away. Sapph's sister staggered in halfway after her long St Paddys night out (no doubt partying hard and having a grand old time) and moseyed upstairs to crash. Having been in a similar state on a number of occasions previous, I did not envy her. Fortunately sleep is a good remedy in that case. So I gathered my things and prevented and more of my presky socks from leaping behind heaters. Then there were many hugs and well wishes until we were all reunited once again. Soon. Oh yes.. very soon. And perhaps the intriguing Varyn will be there as well.. whacky Canadian... from her... Canadian... Cluster... of... Cooky... Corny... OK I'll stop now. But so help me. A single crack about Aussies and there'll be hell to pay
So after a trip in the car with Sapph's mum (again thank you thank you thank you for the trip) I arrived at my mate's place in Oxford, salvaged most of my stuff (forgetting only a pair of shoes and an Akubra hat) I was dropped off by one of the guys at Ditcott station. The time raced by as I leapt on the last train without a ticket. I smooth-talked my way out of a fine and jumped on the air-bus service. Then the bus driver announced that we would expect half hour delays. We were leaving at 5:30, it took about 45mins to get there and the flight was at 7.... close. After fidgeting my way through all the delay, I leapt off the bus at 6:30. I marched into the terminal with all of my bags. Threw the bags on the conveyer and followed the short Japanese chick through the busy customs lines. Tall, blonde, aussie in leather jacket, thigh-high goth boots and a flustered expression is no man to mess with most of the passangers realised. Then the lady pointed me in the direction of the terminal and let me go. The boots thudded and I raced to the VERY LAST TERMINAL and the staff looked up to see Godzilla himself bearing down upon them. I ducked and rolled underneath the line barriers and threw my ticket at the guy. He quipped "Its good you know the shortcut." I can't remember what my reply was but it may just have been "42." I then swagger on to the plane and sit down..... right between two young babies and their respective mothers! The mother's apologised to me in advance, but I was just so glad to be sitting down. Then it turned out fine because they were the two cutest little girls around and after a little bit of playing around they dropped off to sleep, for the entire 14 hour flight.All in all much fun was had and I'd just like to thank Sapphire for inviting me to stay in her lovely household and her mum, her sister and Razor for the fun conversations, the great food and the lovely company. Can't wait to go back.
Btw, you left your cellphone charger here. Guess I'll need to post that back to you, huh? :p
