Christmas Crunch Time

Meoww, champapi <3

Another day is dawning as we glide over a patchwork quilt of dark olive and mustard yellow land; the colour scheme now shifting to dark ocean blues as though a paintbrush was slowly waking a piece of art out of its deep sleep. I take a swig of the last few drops of my 4th delectable cup of aeroplane coffee and lean back against the rigid headrest to reflect upon the manic week just passed. My body clock is completely out of whack, minutes and hours merge, days have been skipped and nights forgotten. The tell tale sign was when I was handed back a form I'd just signed at the airport that I'd wrongly dated '8/12/2014', it took me a good few minutes to realise what the issue was... a pretty representational result of the last 4 months of madness. The deep rumbles of the engine begin to stir stagnant memories back to life into a stream of incoherent movie clips. The first scene to pop up is accompanied by the soundtrack of a new favourite (https://soundcloud.com/mono-massive/sunday-jazz-party) played at our pretentiously suave house party that was so Young & Fuller Sol as everyone leisurely swayed past each other in long dresses and suits, champagne flutes in hand.

Finally
making it out of Butlins
after The House of Fun Weekender :)

Madrid <3

More Bristol nights followed, meeting crazy captains that manned all sort of vessels along the way and then the madness moved to Butlins for a weekend as I stayed with the skariest crew in a House of Fun, finding my inner groupie somewhere on the way.. (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=sTZxeiydcUk)
And then one last cheeky adventure to warmer weather, for a whirlwind weekend in the sexiest basement of Madrid with my girls and some gorgeous company, listening to tunes and living life nocturnally for a few days, before returning to grey skies and a winter wonderland :) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k6gcbgUvM4). 

Madrid 4 days later...

Skating at winter wonderland 

Academia's supposedly been going on simultaneously, I’ve slowly settled into my last year of uni, delving into dreams with my new passion for psychoanalysis, questioning my sanity during our consciousness course and slowing down the rat race with a new yoga class, that I get to teach once a week to a few gentle souls. It's been a heart warming few months of the usual highs and lows as the 3 year mark hits and grants with it a sense of comfort and a funny feeling of home…

The seatbelt sign's on and the energy in the MH003 cabin is getting uneasy... a similar sensation to the rumbles of discomfort that's brewing in many bellies as the headlines maintain their reign of terror: another attack, tighter immigration laws, more war. Watching the incredible response on social media as everyone responds and reacts with statuses, articles and profile pictures, that transition from gay-pride rainbows to French flags; feeling both shocked and amazed at how fast the notifications popped up “15 friends marked safe“ as soon as the Paris bombings occurred. Going to uni that day I felt a worried pang as the cacophony of murmurs suggesting 'World War 3' resonated in the room, at a low tone suited to the subject of conversation... the high shrills of the canteen ladies retained the normality of the situation. The conversations moved on, I ran to my lecture and people continued leisurely sipping on their coffee's & talking about the weather … surrealism at its best.

I went to my first protest to not bomb Syria the other day after conveniently having just had a seminar on crowd psychology. L and I cycled in a dramatic haste through sheets of rain, feeling excited and purposeful as we raced to join the crowd that was blocking off the whole high street in our wage against war (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztZI2aLQ9Sw). I observed the many splits between groups: the transgressive lot demonstrating their disobedience as they skanked out to D&B playing from their mini-rigs, while another group chanted “1,2,3,4 WE DON’T WANT NO TORI WAR, 5,6,7,8 STOP THE BOMBING STOP THE HATE” waving their signs above the masses.

Someone just opened their window a peek and the sun shot through my eyes, it was like being born for the first time :/ and then to add to that weirdness, I can hear that familiar, cheesy welcome video “Salamat Detang, welcome to Malaysia!" Switch.
Back into Asia-mode, eeek i can feel my inner hippie stirring and swirling and singing dem songs :) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynxqdNMry4)! The dark colours that make up my English wardrobe are soon to be stripped and replaced by trippy sarongs and flowery dresses.
My eyes are adjusting to the tropical rain forests that are appearing as we swoop lower;

just as smooth as the air lifts the wings of this huge machine, my heart settles down from the mass of caffeine with not a patch of grey in the sky to be seen.
Palm trees and tinsel time, ho, ho, ho… 
this is the Christmas that I truly know. 

Song of the day: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfJRX-8SXOs