I'm saving at the moment - saving rather madly, in fact. I've been in London for almost a year (seriously?) and so over the next few months, I need to work Visa-wise what my next option is. I've already decided on my plan of attack, but it's unfortunately a very pricey one. Not only do I need to pay for the Visa alone, I also need to return home to start the ball rolling, and wait there while it's processed. Trust me when I saw it's a lengthy and painful process.

Suffice it to say that for the next couple of months, I'll be saving.

I did make one little splurge earlier this month, though. The first was a Christmas tree, a tiny 3 foot pre-dressed plastic tree. I flew out on Christmas last year, so I kind of missed it here in London - and there is no way I was going by this Christmas, the first one Jase and I will be spending with JUST US, without a tree. So, bought! I'm not sure how Oscar is going to take to this, seeing that he's now discovered how to jump great heights; like on the top of our huge chest of drawers and onto the waist high kitchen counters. Bugger.

The second? A boxset of the Harry Potter books, all of them. Now anyone who knows me, will remember that I already have all of the HP books, and have been a die hard Potter fan for years. Unfortunately with the great move, I couldn't bring them with me; so I've been contenting myself with the movies as a substitute while looking for second hand copies in the meantime.

After eleven months I've still had no luck; and all the second hand copies I've seen were on sale for almost the same price as the new ones! The set I got was from Amazon, and came with a cute little box, and all the paperbacks neatly inside. It's adorable. Well pleased with that purchase - not so pleased with Amazon though. Silly, silly little people - they shipped me two of it, thankfully haven't charged me for both yet, but I now have to go and return the second one... not happy, Jan.

So if I'm missing in action for the next few weeks, fear not. I'll just be going back to Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione, is all.

My morning LOLcat ritual always starts the day off well - this one left me giggling. He's totally about to break out into the Thriller routine.

(And I love the random dissaproving kitty on the left. He's not impressed.)

Today is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK - a day where people celebrate a guy attempting to blow things up by, well, blowing things up. Yep, there have been fireworks going on and off all day - in every which direction. Being that I work fairly central (about a 10 minute walk to the Thames near South Bank) I had a lovely view of fireworks over the old court buildings of London - very pretty! Made the walk halfway home in the rain much more pleasant.

For me, though? Every firework is celebrating the US election results. I'm thoroughly pleased. I really hope that Obama can bring about some positive changes - although just the fact that he got in, shows that people are thinking differently already.

Good days. Loving the good days.

I've been spending the day listening in on the American election news - it's amazing how tense I feel, when I'm thousands of miles away and can have absolutely no impact on the overall decision. I'm really hoping things work out the way I envision would make the most difference; but who knows? I never trust my judgement when it comes to elections. Things swing way too easily. Heck, we've had Dubya for how long now?

I guess the thing that freaks me out the most is just how much influence American presidents have over the rest of the world. Yes, Australia may have its own political figures and procedures, but when push comes to shove, the power doesn't lie with us. The strength of the economy doesn't lie with us. We're all so closely tied to this election, I wish I was able to somehow contribute my own two cents on the matter.

Alas, we can't. And to be fair, I don't even understand how the election system works in the USA; it seems so long winded and complicated. (I can't believe voting is not compulsary!)

That's why I'm hoping that loads of people voted today, and voted smart.

Because, for a London-based Australian girl, your votes will make a whole lot of difference to my world too.

So I realise when it comes down to it, that I shouldn't actually complain about the public transport in London. I've done it before, and yes, compared to what we have back home in Sydney, it's fan-freaking-tastic, but seriously - some days I wonder how the whole system stays running.

The usual 4-5 minute wait between my local train has been doubled since June due to line maintainence, meaning that if I miss the train of a morning? 10 minutes until the next one. Now there's an instant way to RUIN the nice early start you had planned for that particular morning.

If you thought that once you actually got on the train, things would be relatively speedy, you would be wrong. Nope. My line is possibly the slowest journey over the shortest distance imaginable. On a good day, the first part of my journey only takes 15 minutes. Since I've come back from my overseas trip? Nearly every morning, it takes me double that time again. Why? Because apparently the trains like to stop dead between stations now for absolutely no reason what so ever. No, really. I'm not in a rush. Please, stop at the next station with the doors open for ten minutes so that the already over-crowded trains can become even more crowded by random people crushing into the carriages.

Sigh. I'm not bitter, really I'm not.

Okay. Fine. I'm bitter. But every morning? It's getting a trifle irritating. Let's not even go into the fact that the second part of my journey is on the most disgusting tube line in London - the dreaded, squished Central line. It's becoming so congested and disgusting in the mornings (and don't even get me started on the evening time frame!) that I'm debating leaving home earlier and just walking the tube line. Only pain is that a five minute tube ride turns out to be a 25 minute walk. Maybe alright for summer, but it's getting cold already. Hrm. Might have to give it a shot, sometime. At least it'll add to my exercising routine!

Apart from signal failures and defective trains, my all time favourite reason for train delays would have to be due to a 'person under a train'. I swear, there are people under trains every hour in this city; what is going on? Are people falling under them? Jumping? Accidentally finding themselves wandering the tracks of an afternoon? I don't understand.

It's days like this that I miss my car.

So it's your turn to share/gripe/complain - what's your journey to work like?

Time to continue on with the travel pictures; because reminiscing makes me smile, and it is most definitely something that I have meant to blog more about.

8. Alberquerque, New Mexico.

We arrived in New Mexico really quite late, so didn't see much in the evening - other than some karaoke in the hotel, that is. Bright and early the next morning, we pried ourselves up out of bed to head into the city and get ready for our hot air ballooning adventure. It was surprising how terrified I was, leading up to the event - watching the balloons go from flat pieces of fabric to baskets ready to float around in the sky got me a trifle paranoid about HOW it would actually work. We had a cute balloon though, and were soon off cruising along the sky. It was incredible, absolutely incredible. So peaceful, such a pretty view, and just a surreal experience. Loved the landing too, despite being convinced we were about to die.

9. Santa Fe, New Mexico.

We didn't stay long here, unfortunately - just a lunch stop and wander around. It was really, really hot while we were here, and there were crowds of people everywhere. Loved the achitecture and the Indian jewellery that was being sold everywhere was beautiful. I'm sad we didn't get to go further down into NM and see Roswell, though. I would've loved to find myself my very own alien (in the form of Max Evans, of course) down there . . .

I'm giving it another whirl; it is November, after all. This is the third time I've participated in NaBloPoMo - perhaps it'll give me a big kick in the butt with blogging.

Nothing much going on to report at the moment - same old, same old. But I'll be sure to be reporting to you all about the same old for the next thirty days! Stay tuned!

You know you've been spending too much time at home alone with your kitty, when his regular meowing starts to sound more and more like a human word.

"Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!"

Poor little Oscar, being neglected on this here blog due to the thousands of holiday photos that I'm still yet to get up and running. Well, my darling kitters is just fine here at home - growing bigger by the day. He has an alarming foot fetish which has resulted in my poor toes being covered in scratches, but the next second he's loving curled up resting on your arm, so it's impossible to stay cranky with him.

"You didn't need that eyebrow, did you?"

Oscar has also recently had his er, big boy operation, and is now ball-less. Only, he still has balls. Huh? I thought that cat neutering simply chopped them off? Apparently not. He may be a trifle less manly, but he's still strutting his stuff, frolicking around the flat showing off his nicely shaved hiney.

"Who, me?" [Innocent face.]

Jase has been out of town for a while now, and I'm going slowly crazy without him here. I miss him loads, and it has literally been months since we were in our normal routine. Hopefully he gets to come home soon. Oscar is not impressed that he's stuck with just me... and I'd like to keep my toes attached to my feet where they belong. The boy better come home soon, is all I'm saying.

"TOES, GIMME TOES TO NOM, I WANTS THEM NOW!!"

So, either you all think my Grand Canyon pictures are awful - OR my feed reader is apparently broken and nobody has actually seen this post the good old-fashioned blog visiting way. I'm going to tame my shattered ego and hope for the latter; because my Bloglines has an awful [!] next to loads of my favourite blogs right now, and apparently hates them all.

Anyway . . .

Onwards to the pictures we go!

6. Monument Valley, Utah.

I'd read about this part of the trip from day one, but I really didn't expect it to be as amazing as it was. From the Grand Canyon, the roads stayed really flat - and then we crossed over on to Navajo land, and the landscape changed completely. The rock formations literally came up out of nowhere, and looked amazing from a distance, but even more unbelievable up close. The soil was so, so red. When we got into Monument Valley, we took a tour in an old converted school bus, and got up close and personal to the formations. These are some of my favourite photos from the entire trip.

7. Durango, Colorado.

Again, with the landscape. We left Monument Valley and drove all afternoon to the bottom of Colorado. We stayed in Cortez overnight (hello, giant Walmart!) and then made our way to Durango - which was quite possibly the coolest little town of the trip. At lunch, I had a hoagie (hee hee), and also had a taste of the most amazing homemade chicken pot pie, which I talked about for the entire rest of the trip. WHY DIDN'T I ORDER THE PIE? Yes, one pie was just that good.

Anywho, here we had the option to choose what we did for the day; white water rafting or jeeping through the mountains. I'd already done rafting in New Zealand, so opted for the off road jeeping. We got the coolest driver and a really cute blue Jeep Wrangler, and spent the day in the sun. I heart Colorado. Unfortunately, some of the infamous Monument Valley red dust had smeared my camera lens, which I didn't notice until I got back, so most of my Colorado shots are blurry. Sad.

The epic saga continues...

4. Las Vegas

I've been to Sin City once before when I was younger; but even still was still mindboggled by it. The drive into Vegas, with the billboards popping up, and the casino signs everywhere - and then the strip basically popping up out of nowhere; there's nothing else quite like it. We stayed in a dodgy, dodgy hotel here with giant cockroaches and a weird shower, but on the plus side, it had air conditioning that worked. Thank goodness for that, because phew, it was hot. I went on the Manhattan rollercoaster in New York, New York, and I think I actually burned off the top layer of skin on my face just climbing the first rise. HOT.

5. Arizona - Grand Canyon

We stayed in the little town of Williams, on Route 66, a small drive from the Canyon. Before we got to experience the canyon itself, we were driven first to the Imax theatre to watch a film about it, and second to a small air field not far away. Here, I panicked slightly (!) while we were all weighed in and distributed between helicopters for our scenic flight. Luckily I was able to fly with some friends, and we had the most amazing ride - I've never been in anything quite like it. The canyon is quite honestly mindblowing; I would have loved to walk around on the inside and just look UP. Wow. I took about 150 pictures of it, alone.