So, finally, here is some stuff about our trip to Legoland. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did but it really was tons of fun and we stayed pretty much all day until closing time. As well as all the rides, there’s a 4D cinema, plenty shops, a place to play the Lego games on XBox (although non-Nintendo controllers are impossibly over-complicated in my opinion) and of course there are Lego things all over the place.  Anyway, here’s some of my favourite parts, and you can see my Flickr and my sister’s Flickr for lots more photos.

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We found this family of giant bunnies outside Spitalfields Market in London – aren’t they ace? My new life motto is, ‘you can never go in the wrong direction; you can just find some giant bunnies instead’. While we were technically going in the wrong direction for the Renegade Craft Market, I was even happier with giant bunnies and a spot to eat the giant brownie we’d just purchased. Renegade was cool, but I forgot to take any photos, and didn’t buy anything, so maybe have a look at Kim from Finest Imaginary’s blog post instead. Legoland still to come – I’m waiting on my sister’s photos of me being an idiot.

In other news:

1. We got over 25 Likes on Facebook so go enter the giveaway to win a half-size Busy Bee Organiser.

2. Keep the Pocket Ghosts giveaway entries coming! In the interests of fairness (especially since my own mother entered!), I’ve not clicked any of the links yet. I’ll open them all up on Friday and pick my favourites and then see who posted them. I will say that I already own this adorable t-shirt so try again!

3. The Moon was ginormous last night. I wished I could show you what it looks like through my little telescope and actually I kind of can! My photo is a bit fuzzy but still, THE MOON.

He’s been very polite about it, but it seems I missed the 5 year anniversary of Angel Bunny’s arrival in Glasgow. Five years! Angel Bunny has been a very loyal travelling companion, coming with me to Japan (twice), Thailand, Holland, Ireland and all over the UK. You can enjoy all his travellings over at Flickr but here’s a few of my favourites. Above is my favourite photo, in Shinjuku Gyoen with a little leaf hat like Totoro. If he ever decides to fly off and leave me, I’ll be getting this one framed.

Doing karaoke in Newcastle. I have forgotten exactly what we were doing in a karaoke bar, maybe Claire can remember. This still makes me laugh though. (more…)

As previously mentioned, Rothesay is not exactly a top shopping destination. While it initially appeared to have a variety of different stores, it turned out that they all basically sold tat of the pound shop variety. Victorian jewellery (and tat), Newsagent (and tat), Clothes shop (and tat). It’s quite possible that every month a man in a giant boat full of tat turns up and takes orders. I think the only shop not selling tat was the one selling an enormous range of lightbulbs and nothing else.

We did spot some rather fantastic illustrated postcards, which I promptly sent to all my family. I kept one of the Waverley for myself. I love how they’re both simplistic and really detailed. The artist is Nicola Jones but she doesn’t seem to have a working website.

You can imagine my delight when we discovered a haul of related goods inside the newsagents – there were fridge magnets, notepads, mugs and lots more all with over saturated views of Bute. I snapped up this colour-in calendar and I cannot wait until 2012 to start using it. I foresee a new section in my monthly updates.

I’m quite tempted to make one myself, using my own illustrations. Downloadable PDF series for next year?

I return from Rothesay and a very grey weekend. We couldn’t see anything but fog from the ferry but we’re pretty convinced that we went through a wormhole and ended up in February. Of what year, I couldn’t say. Possibly 1958. It rained pretty constantly for the first 24 hours so I don’t have many photos. It cleared up a good bit on our second day, though we never saw the sun.

Anyway, we still had a marvellous time. There was a lot of sea and distant islands to look at, a castle and a whole townful of terrible shops selling tat. I also got to finally eat a Rothesay delicacy – the Top Hat ice cream – which is a vanilla cone with a coconut snowball plonked on top. It was great.

We took the bus tour around the island which involved a lot of tiny villages, some nice beaches, hundreds of cows, 3 llamas, 2 donkeys and a peek at some of the actual tourist spots that we would have loved to visit if it wasn’t pouring with rain. I would like to go back and see Mount Stuart and the Victorian Fernery. We also saw the Waverley Paddle Steamer, which looks like a fun day out.

In the evenings, we sat around a roaring log fire at the B&B with their friendly cat and got an enormous amount of work done – I might start requesting all my web design clients take me on holiday for a couple of days so we can thrash out their design requirements. Both myself and Claire have come home with a stack of new ideas.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be back in Bute again sometime soon – it’s perfectly possible to do a day trip from Glasgow, especially as all the shops close at 4pm, and it’s easy to get around, if you can deal with the hilarity of there seemingly only being 2 bus drivers on the island. I would also recommend our B&B, Munro’s – it was really comfortable with friendly owners who make an excellent breakfast, not to mention the log fire and cat situation. We got a deal through 5pm, which made it all the more affordable.

More photos on my Flickr if you’re interested. And now I better get back to work and answer all these emails.

I’m back! And very tired. It was a really fun weekend, though I maybe should have stayed one day more as I barely had time for a peek at Paperchase and a rummage in the Uniqlo sale, and some cheesecake brownie from the Hummingbird Bakery. Thank goodness for late night shopping!

Anime Con itself was great fun. This was my first convention and there were lots of cool costumes, though I can’t say I recognised half of them. I did like the guy dressed in a dinosaur suit (spot him above!) and someone dressed as Ash from Pokemon, with a rucksack full of pokeballs. The stalls were mostly either bigger stores selling toys, figurines, posters etc. or individual artists, most of which were drawing sketches of people while you wait, in every style from kawaii to manga to realistic. And there was a stage in our room with a random assortment of entertainment so it was difficult to be bored.

As someone who hates the fake-optimism of craft fairs where everyone tries to pretend they had a great day, when they barely covered their stall costs, I did have a great day, but I didn’t make nearly as much as I hoped, nor did I cover even half my costs (stall, travel, hotel). BUT on the upside, I learned a heck of a lot. Firstly, that these events seem to have a much more suitable audience for me than craft fairs – there was a lot of enthusiasm and I had many conversations about Japan. Secondly, that taking my stuff across country is nowhere near as stressful as I expected – I was able to bring a good selection of stuff without having an impossibly heavy bag, and even with London’s ridiculous weekend transport issues – it was mostly no trouble getting around. And Thirdly, from what I could see, I wasn’t doing any worse than anyone else. The only stall people were going mental over was the one selling trading cards.

So, despite the cash loss, it was well worth it in research. I got some good tips from other stallholders of other events too, that might cost me less to attend, and I gave out many many discount cards, so it will be interesting to see what comes of that. And I got a nice holiday too.

I stayed at Club Quarters, where I have stayed before. I like it a lot because they have self check-in/out, nice rooms, free wifi and a fancy lounge with free filter coffee. And they’re pretty cheap for London too. The downside is that it’s in the financial district so hardly anything is open at the weekend. It’s easy to get into the city centre though and nicely situated close by London Bridge / St Pauls / Tower Bridge / Borough Market.

On Sunday morning, I ended up climbing The Monument on a whim, mostly because it was there. I can tell you that climbing up 311 steps in 24 degree weather after dragging a heavy suitcase around town all weekend is a good way to tire yourself out. You do get a good view from the top though, even if it is obscured by chicken wire. Plus, a surprise certificate at the end. They could at least write your name on it for you.

PS. The sale is now over, but I have an exciting August promotion coming up soon. Watch this space!