I got on the tube at six in the morning today for the airport, the same big heavy bags now stuffed with big heavy souvenirs for friends and family and coughing my brains out after a pretty throat-intensive three weeks. This tube will take me to London Heathrow. From there I will fly to Frankfurt, Germany, which for some inexplicable reason was cheaper than flying straight to New York even though we will pass over London Heathrow on the plane from Frankfurt. While at the airport my passport is stamped with a cool "I've been in Germany!" stamp. Twice for some reason. From here I will go to New York.

Well, not really. Newark, New Jersey. The Big Scrapple.

So thanks for reading these blogs. If you have read them all you have probably recognized that apparently two things happened on this trip.
1) I met new people.
2) I liked those people.
Here are a couple of things I wrote down a bit hungover after eating a "Breakfast Beast" in Manchester, after leaving a sad time in a toilet that didn't flush.

- Someday you may find yourself DJ'ing an club night or two in England. While in this situation, you should never go back on your belief that Kate Nash sucks. Do not play "Foundations" cause you think everyone will love it. No one will love it. Everyone else thinks Kate Nash is bullshit too. The dance floor will empty. Just play that Junior Senior cut again.

- If you travel some day with a large coat, every single person you meet will say "That's a pretty big coat!" or "Is it cold out there!" Literally everyone.

- If you pack a lot of winter garments, hats, scarves, gloves, hand and foot warmers, etc… it really would be best of you to do your best to hold onto these things instead of losing each one roughly four hours before you actually need it.

- Also, don't worry about it! If you find yourself staying in someone else's nice hotel room, you can actually sleep in it far far far after they have checked out and leave your bags at the front of the hotel for an entire day so you can check out the sites. Shit, your key will even work long enough for you to restock the minibar from the bodega up the street.

- I know riding a train backwards sucks, but eventually you will be able to do it and not get train sick at all! Look at you go!

- When laundry starts going bad and there is no feasible way for you to wash a shirt in the sink and dry it, but you NEED to have something that doesn't smell like the gallons (er… litres!) of sweat you pour out of your body every night, try putting deodorant on the OUTSIDE of your shirt as well as on yr pits. Your new mates will thank you!

- The following things are totally awesome and okay to eat with breakfast: baked beans, grilled tomatoes and roasted onions.

- Apparently if you spend your entire time in new countries waking up and going to bed at all hours, your health will never be terribly in question as long as you drink coffee constantly through the day and alcohol constantly through the night. Maybe not the best thing to learn.

- When picking out souvenirs for family members, remember that moms and grandmas are not really easy people to shop for. But everyone likes a football scarf. I hope. I have bought six.

- No matter what the situation, you'll always have a better time if you're optimistic about it. Never forget that.

And with that, I say "so long." I will leave you with these two odd photographs that surfaced after my second to last night in London with Chris Shelakis from Chotto Ghetto who would be flying out that next morning. I don't know how to explain them. Parts of this trip were fuzzy. Cheers.

-- Jeff