Nottingham
Canterbury
Day in the Gardens
Oxford
Rambling with the Old Folks
Our First Ramble
Then we headed up to into the hills and forest where there is an old manor house and random monument to the builder of the English Canal System. Standard English monument=concrete block for a base, with generic greek style pillar with piece of statuary on top. Here we stopped for lunch and there was a really neat little cafe being run by the National Trust. Stephen and I packed our lunches and ate them in the picnic area, but got tea and hot coco afterwords---85 pence for a whole pot of tea. I was a happy camper, or rambler as the case may be.
Up until then we'd been having pretty nice weather, not sunny, but warm and an overcast that made the fall leaves really vibrant. Of course, we start the second half of the hike, the part going up into the chalk hills & Ivinghoe Beacon and through a Pre-Roman trail back to Tring, turning into a windy soggy raining mess. All of us who did have the forethough to bring along anything more than a raincoat (not waterproof pants, mud guards, gators, etc) were completely soaked to the bone and muddy up to our knees. We still had a lovely time though as people were in pretty good spirits, but we missed most of the beautiful landscape due to trying not to fall on the slippery paths and keeping the rain out of our eyes. The guide was awesome though and is planning on doing the walk again come spring when the bluebells are in flower.
But we survived no worse for wear, by the end my hips were starting to ache (and my right knee for some strange reason, same kind of ache in my hips too which does *not* bode well), but nothing a nice hot shower (bath would have been better), hot soup, tea and a nap couldn't fix. So that's good, and getting a pair of waterproofs for the rainy season like this would probably do a good bit for preventing the aching since cold + wet does tend to trigger what's left of my old injuries.
So we liked the group quite a bit, got some good talks in with other members. Very friendly people who love to get out and in the thick of things so to speak. We may not make any fast friends there, but it is nice to get out with a bunch of like minded people, get a feel for the local history, breath the fresh air, and see some neat country side. Good stuff all round and another whole day of weekend left--just what the doctor ordered.
1st Month in London
Stephen and I celebrated our one month
anniversary of being in London and our 9 month
wedding anniversary by. . .unpacking!!! We
finally got our shipment of household goods from
the US, after a huge hassel and another large
chunk of currency. This has perhaps been the
single most insane experience of my life, but,
hey, live and learn and know better for next
time.
Amazingly enough everything seems to fit in our
little bitty space. It's a bit squishy, but
everything more or less has it's own spot. Over
time we'll obtain more tupperwear type storage
units to get everything accessable, but for now
it's comfortably cluttered. =)
Sunday we went out and wondered the Piccadilly
& Oxford Circus area of London. I'm
endeavoring to find a pair of knee high brown
leather boots that won't cost me a fortune, but
shopping in London is really quite fun in and of
itself as they have cutting edge fashions, some
of which are scary, but quite a bit is really
tasteful. I'm pleased to see that the tailored
look is very much back "in". So good stuff there.
As most of your know, I received the best
birthday present imaginable. . .a job!! It's a 3
month contract through a temp agency with a huge
financial services firm. My job is a secretary to
two different "teams" of analysts--making copies,
scanning documents into the system, binding
reports, making travel arrangements, filing, etc.
My coworkers are pretty nice; my cube-mate speaks
Russian! So there will be much Russian practice,
though hopefully without too much cringing on her
part (she's a native speaker).
I'm also starting to get a feel for the kind of
work financial analysts do. . .and micro-economic
analysis is not for me. Hey, at least now I know.
If nothing else, temping is going to give me the
opportunity to at least get a feel for a couple
of different career options and maybe help figure
out what in the world I want to be when I grow
up. In fact, I'm really starting to learn that
maybe I don't want to work for a big
multinational, while the atmosphere at work isn't
unpleasant, it's very impersonal on the whole.
Lots of individual work and only superficial
interaction with other human beings. Not liking
that so much. I found an advert for an Assitant
Program Manager with a nonprofit specializing in
conflict resolution, so I'm going to work on the
essay portion of it and turn that in at the end
of the week. Another nice thing about temping--24
hour notice to leave the job.
So things have officially settled. We're living
in London!!
The Way Home - Part I
Jinxed me he did.
Although the way to London wasn't too bad.
Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare after lugging my monster bag through Aberdeen to the bus station. The plane was a bit late taking off for some unexplained reason, which put me at Luton at 10:30.
There were several people going to the bus station, so we all got on the shuttle including an exchange student who needed to get to Manchester. It took 3 bus drivers to figure out a route for him. (Resisting the urge to make a Tootsie Pop joke)
So we were finally off to the train station (Luton is WAY outside of London), and got a ticket for the next earliest train, 11:15. This meant I didn't get to London until midnight. At this point, I was quite hesitant to try and take the underground back to the hostel/B&B, since I didn't know the system well, nor did I know about it's reputation after dark. So I drug my monster luggage over to the main Kings Cross Station (the Luton train arrives into Thameslink)--pretty shady.
They did have a taxi queque, and I was off to the Windsor House, same place I stayed the first time. I had confirmed my reservation with them the first time I checked in and told them that I would probably not be arriving until 11:00pm on the 27th. They made a note and said that would be fine. Granted, I didn't get there until half past midnight, but I didn't think that would be late enough for them to cancel my reservation.
Yup, they cancelled my reservation when I didn't arrive at 7pm.
They had one room left, but it was twice as expensive as the one I had reserved. Had it not been nearly 1am I would have found some place else. As it was, I talked them into reducing the higher rate since I had indeed confirmed the reservation earlier. So, I get up to my room, get ready for bed, and fall into it exhausted. . .
with insomnia
Ick. I think I finally fell asleep around 3am, and my alarm went off at 6:45.
Rest of the day in London
The gardens were really beautiful, and all different kinds of trees. So it was nice and refreshing to get about and stretch my legs after nearly 12 hours in an airplane. Kensington Palace and the little art museum there in the park were both closed due to renovations, so nothing there to really explore.
Then back to the hostel/B&B to check in. I was only 5 minutes early, but they still didn't have the room ready, but they said they had a room with a private bath that I could take instead for an extra 6 GBP. So, I took it thinking that a nice lingering, steamy shower would feel wonderful after a good long walk in the drizzle and traveling. Well, it turned out that the entire "bathroom" was about the size of a standard bathtub: shower, toilet, and sink. I literally could not close the door while sitting on the toilet because there wasn't enough room. While showering I had to stand parallel to the wall so that all of me would fit in the shower at once.
So much for a lingering shower. But hey, I got clean, which was more than I was before.
I then picked up a little guide they had in the front lobby of all the sights in London, and since time was short I decided to hit the National Gallery instead of St. Paul's and the Tate.
On my way out, though, I had the front desk guy arrange transportation for the next morning at 4:50 so that I could make my flight to Aberdeen at 7:00. After making the reservation he gave me the name and phone number of the driver that he had arranged. Remember this for later.
Anyway, off I went to the National Gallery-- and yes, Branson you were right the tube system is really wonderful, if for no other reason that it has little Cadbury Egg dispensers all over the place. =)
I spent most of my time in the 1700-1900 section and in a special sculpture exhibit they had up. I think one of my favorites out of the paintings was Monet's 'Parliment at Sunset'. Its done in such a way that they shadow of the building on the water morphs into the building above as the red, purple and yellow streaked sky fills in the remaining space. The colors were so vibrant and the way he streaked the sky for sunset reminded me more of lightning at dusk than a true sunset. Really remarkable. I think I may become a fan of impressionism afterall.
So I stayed at the museum until it closed at 6:00pm, grabbed a rather dry and tasteless turkey sandwhich at a nearby cafe, and then headed back to read for a few hours before doing pre-check out (since I would be leaving so early the next day), and asleep by 9:00pm.
All in all a pretty good day in London, but definitely some place to come back to a spend a week or so seeing everything. For instance, they have a permenant collection of Dali at an extension of the Tate that I would love to see. Hopefully it will still be there in a few years time.
Day 1 in London
Nathan got me to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and I was checked in and through security in less than 10 minutes in Dallas. Not too bad. I got to see his new place too, which is fabulous! I think we need to throw a housewarming for him after he gets all moved in. *hint hint*
Anyway, for whatever reason they won't let me get into my room at the B&B until 2pm, which cuts into my sightseeing time considerably. The original plan was to hop over to St. Paul's and then catch the Tate Modern with whatever time was left over. Of course, all that was assuming I got into my room at 10am like they said I could. *sigh* oh well.
My flight to Aberdeen is tomorrow morning at 7am. Yikes! That means getting there by 6am. Even though I did get sleep on the plane, I'll still be pretty dazed. Poor Brett having to deal with me in that state.
Anyway, I'm going to hop over to a cafe and grab some food and figure out the rest of my day.
Ciao!