well, it's a few minutes after three o'clock in the morning, I'm in my bed, my laptop on my lap and unable to sleep - no matter what I might try. This weekend had almost anything - awesomeness, guilt, pain, fun and thrill. All mixed up in a very awesome or odd way.

Everything started on friday. Arti and Xai picked me up at the airport and surprised me with not only the same Lugia I use to cuddle so closely each night at my bed, but also with the GIANT one on the back seats. And the surprise was even bigger when I heard I was allowed to keep and look for it over the weekend. Awesome! Maybe one of the best surprises the two could have done to me. Then I finally got to the hotel.

Those idiots there: They offered free Wi-Fi. Well, you got free Wi-Fi in fact, but only to get a network with all other computers on the hotel - not the internet. That however was due to a problem in the router they had - I found out the next day...
...and well, to get a call through home to tell I arrived well, I had to partly disassemble the supplied iMac on my hotel room (in fact: removing the LAN cable and plugging it into my notebook solved the problems). Gladly I was able to use my VoIP-Suite, so each call to germany was as cheap as 1.8 cents....instead of insane 60 cents by using my mobile phone (hooray on inner-european roaming fees...NOT!). And I also called Arti telling her everything.

Saturday: I got to admit: The british breakfast is quite something. The black pudding tasted odd and unusual, but interesting and nice. So did the jam and toast.
I still had plenty of time until the meet. And well - I used the time to wander around, catch some photos, a bit fresh air and the flair of Leeds with all my body's pores.
Then off to the meet.

First we went to Leeds station - and except for all the roads Xai drove us maybe the only place with more cameras than any average german electronics store. I can't actually believe how security cameras could possibly shrink the crime rate or prevent robberies and such from happening. Will the cameras just jump off the wall and beat the criminal to hospital? Well...I doubt they do...

Whilst Arti and RN (we met her at the station) went off to catch burnett from the bus station, we guys went off to get a drink and catch some money. Gosh, thanks Xai for sorting out all the british money - I still don't seem to find any noticeable connection between how much which coin is worth - neither by the material nor the size...

When we all finally gathered, three of us grabbed a cab (which I wasn't allowed to pay - against the promise I gave >_> ) and the other four drove with Xai's car - next stop: Tropical world!

In fact: A giant tropical animal park of many kinds. Even though it was quite dark, rainy and could outside, even darker and less populated inside, the atmosphere was really awesome.

After many wonderful minutes to hours (forgive me, I lost track on time there) we went off to the arcades.
To be honest - except for racing games - arcades are really not the kind of stuff I like. Yet it was impressive watching Arti and LLOTS to battle against each other on the DDR machine...and shocking to see Xai doing so alone on both pads. I mean - I would have gotten a kink in the legs, fallen over and broken something after some steps already...

After a short break at Pizza Hut (sponsored by Xai!), we returned to the arcades and were allwed to listen to a great speech by Arti (bet she'll be cutting and uploading it quite some time. Otherwise I will go on convert it to a complete movie (or at least try so) if wished.

Sadly, the meet went over waaay too fast with so many aspects disregarded by me here - not because they weren't great, but because I simply can't get all of them into right order.

the evening came by and I was allowed to see Arti's and Xai's very personal nest. Awesome. And I was also allowed to try one of the selfmade pasta sauces (one of the best I've ever been allowed to try so far in fact. But Arti, Xai: Next time I will cook for all of us, okay?). Sadly even this evening went by way too fast and I had to leave to the hotel.

Sunday came - and a trip to York. Really nice city I must tell. Reminded me a bit of old books and movies with its dense atmosphere, all the shops and very unique scenery. We got up to the cathedral there, had a marvelous look all over the place, went down for a small lunch and later on a nice cup of tea (Arti), coffee (Xai) and hot chocolate (me!). Again the time passed so damn fast and we had to get back to Leeds to get a bit of shopping done and to get to the airport in time.

Ah, the airport. May I mention the parking there is ridiculus? I mean, four pounds an hour! If I had known that I would have grabbed a cab instead!

Well, we went to the airport, had a small snack and wished goodbyes there...I went through the security check, ready to board my sardine-tin...err...plane I mean.

So, I'm back in germany. Sleepless due to all the memories, thinking about what crap I spoke all the time being over there in england, feeling my legs from all the steps now way too clearly (gosh, I bet my legs will KILL me today. And I was planning to go to the studio to train even more....ouch) though I already applied anti-stiffness-medication on them, having the awesome memories and pictures of the past two-and-a-half days, the dialogues and a bad feeling about some of them within me, a kink in my guts due to all of it, lots of photos to look at, lots of laundry to do and so many things within my head that would prefer to just jump out and do a dance on my keyboard. Yet I'm afraid nobody would be able to understand or read the result - I'm not even understanding it myself right now.

gosh, I'm writing crap now, the clock just passed 3:30 and I have to get up in about...err..three hours? Yeah, I really hope I'll be able to push some of the thoughts and worries away I went to after my arrival to catch some sleep now. For those of you reading until this point: I'm really impressed you took all the time to read my mind-farts this far. It means a lot to me...well...kinda you know?

So, bed's calling. Since about four hours already. But I'm deaf on that ear as it seems.