Mich got onto me yesterday about the fact that I hadn't posted in so long. I gently reminded her that she could post as well, but it seems to fall to me to be the one to attempt to tell the tale of a New Year in London.
After Christmas day, the day after - Boxing Day, was spent in recuperation. The following few days were fairly quiet as well, so not much to report, really. I went back in to work on Monday, and then our guests arrived on Tuesday, being my mom, sister, and grandmother.
Tuesday went more or less as I thought it would, with our arrivals too drained to do much other than sit and wait for night to fall so that they could go to sleep. Wednesday rolled around, and they all went on the Big Bus tour of London with Mich and the kids. (For anyone who is counting, that's Michelle's fourth time, so she can probably give you as interesting a commentary as the tour by this point - and I'm sure she'd be far more interesting than the recorded commentary.) I met up with them after work for the rail ride home, a trip to the fish and chips shop only to find it closed (until 13th January, no less), and finally, a stop at the local Chinese place for our New Years' Eve dinner. As we watched the London fireworks on the telly, it became clear that we had made the right decision by staying in - firstly, it was freezing out there - after a relatively warm week coming up to Christmas, the highest it's reached since has been maybe 40 - and secondly, there were half a million people out there watching the fireworks go off. Not exactly where you want to be, with or without kids. Dalton made it until midnight for his second year - he really wanted to last year, but as some of you may recall, we were actually on a plane at midnight, and we pressured him to go to sleep before then.
New Year's Day was a "stay at home" sort of day, after staying up late the evening before, and some of us weren't up until almost 10. The day after, I took my sister and my mom in to London for a visit of the British Library and the National Gallery. Mich then met my sister and I for a "pub crawl" - we managed to make it to the Coal Hole and the George Inn, the George Inn being the oldest galleried inn in London, frequented by Shakespeare and Dickens in their days, and apparently even mentioned by Dickens in one of his books.
Mich, my sister and I made it out again the following day, mainly for a trip to Abbey Road, where, yes, we tried to do the Beatles walk, but as one of us had to take the picture, we were missing two people - plus, traffic on the road was quite busy, and most drivers didn't care to wait for the tourists to pose for their pictures. That was more or less it for our London outings. We caught the train home and met everyone else at the Feathers for dinner for their first English fish and chips meal.
Mich took my mom and grandmother to Guildford the next day for some shopping while I rested up at home. And then Monday, we woke up to snow - enough that it stuck here in Merstham, and the kids went and played in the back garden until time for school. And I went to work, and our guests got in a taxi and went to Gatwick, and life is now slowly moving back to "normal" - whatever that is. The weather here continues to be cold - yesterday the fountains in Trafalgar Square froze, and apparently it was colder in parts of the UK than it was in parts of Antarctica. There's no immediate sign of it warming, so we're bundling up, and wondering (sometimes) why we forfeited January weather of 70F for weather of 30F.
I'll try to get pictures of some of the bits in the next day or so.
Showing posts with label Guildford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guildford. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Friday, May 16, 2008
Pictures of Guildford
Okay, so here are the pictures of Guildford, as promised. Well, most are of Guildford, anyway. I've also put in a picture from the local train station...but there is a reason. One of the first times that we went to the station to go into London, Michelle looked across the platform and said something to the effect of, "What's up with the party mice?" So you have a picture of the "party mice" - 5 points to the person who says what they are.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Where Are They Now?
Catching up, yet once again...
Since our return from Italy, life has been fairly quiet. Most of the first week or two was partly consumed by my trying to get my various credit cards, debit cards, and other sundry cards cancelled and reissued. We did pop off to Guildford on the 3rd, and I'll put up some pictures of that shortly. Some of you may recall that Mich had already been to Guildford, however, this was where our camera decided to cease working, so there weren't any pictures the first time around.
Guildford was quite enjoyable. It's a fairly small little town, and really the most interesting thing there is Guildford Castle, which was probably built shortly after the Battle of Hastings (1066). It's been greatly modified since, and the only thing left is the walls, but it also has some magnificent gardens, where we took a good number of pictures. We wandered around the town a bit, stopped off at a TGI Friday's (!) for lunch, and had cotton candy (here it's called candy floss) from a vendor on the high street.
It's probably a good thing that we went that weekend, as we finally got our tax bill this past week. It's safe to say that the tax bill and our trip to Italy has left us grounded for a bit. I won't go into the gory details on taxes, but basically we pay taxes to the US, Alabama, and the UK, which makes for an unusually high tax rate. Nonetheless, life goes on.
The weather here has taken a turn for the better and the past week and a half or so have been unusually sunny and warm, running about 70 - 75 or so for the highs, which is really quite warm for this part of the world. According to the Wikipedia article, the UK gets an average of 1,339.7 hours of sunshine per year, and I figure that with the recent good weather, things are about to get ugly. Still, it has been thoroughly enjoyable. The weather is reminiscent of when I first arrived: for nearly two weeks it rained only a little, and I wondered why everyone fussed so much about the rain and bad weather. I've wised up since then. We even bought a disposable grill yesterday and grilled some burgers for the first time in over a year. It was awesome. For those of who pondering the disposable grill, it's basically a small aluminum pan with charcoal in it and a small grilling surface, useable once.
So, all quiet on the front. After I post the Guildford pictures, I'm going to try something new. A friend of ours has a blog where she posted 30 things for 30 days. I'm not sure if I have the stamina, but I figure I'll give it the old college try.
Since our return from Italy, life has been fairly quiet. Most of the first week or two was partly consumed by my trying to get my various credit cards, debit cards, and other sundry cards cancelled and reissued. We did pop off to Guildford on the 3rd, and I'll put up some pictures of that shortly. Some of you may recall that Mich had already been to Guildford, however, this was where our camera decided to cease working, so there weren't any pictures the first time around.
Guildford was quite enjoyable. It's a fairly small little town, and really the most interesting thing there is Guildford Castle, which was probably built shortly after the Battle of Hastings (1066). It's been greatly modified since, and the only thing left is the walls, but it also has some magnificent gardens, where we took a good number of pictures. We wandered around the town a bit, stopped off at a TGI Friday's (!) for lunch, and had cotton candy (here it's called candy floss) from a vendor on the high street.
It's probably a good thing that we went that weekend, as we finally got our tax bill this past week. It's safe to say that the tax bill and our trip to Italy has left us grounded for a bit. I won't go into the gory details on taxes, but basically we pay taxes to the US, Alabama, and the UK, which makes for an unusually high tax rate. Nonetheless, life goes on.
The weather here has taken a turn for the better and the past week and a half or so have been unusually sunny and warm, running about 70 - 75 or so for the highs, which is really quite warm for this part of the world. According to the Wikipedia article, the UK gets an average of 1,339.7 hours of sunshine per year, and I figure that with the recent good weather, things are about to get ugly. Still, it has been thoroughly enjoyable. The weather is reminiscent of when I first arrived: for nearly two weeks it rained only a little, and I wondered why everyone fussed so much about the rain and bad weather. I've wised up since then. We even bought a disposable grill yesterday and grilled some burgers for the first time in over a year. It was awesome. For those of who pondering the disposable grill, it's basically a small aluminum pan with charcoal in it and a small grilling surface, useable once.
So, all quiet on the front. After I post the Guildford pictures, I'm going to try something new. A friend of ours has a blog where she posted 30 things for 30 days. I'm not sure if I have the stamina, but I figure I'll give it the old college try.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Catching Up...and a History Lesson
Well, let's see...
The weekend past didn't quite go as planned. (I believe the quote is: "The best laid plans of mice and men...") Saturday was pretty, and Mich and Tracy and her mom went to Guildford to explore. Mich said it was quite nice, however, our camera went on the fritz, and so there are no pictures to back up her words. We're hoping to get our camera fixed so we can take pictures with it in the future, especially given that we got it for Christmas.
Sunday was originally set aside for the St. Patrick's Day parade in London, however, when Sunday arrived, it brought with it some absolutely miserable weather. The weather was cold and wet, and any thought of going anywhere dissipated with the first step outside. The weekend passed and the week began.
We personally didn't do anything on Monday or Tuesday, although Tracy and her mom went to the Cotswolds and London. They left to return home on Tuesday night. I thought the Cotswolds were a really neat area when we drove through, and I hope to make it back there again before we leave.
Wednesday came and went, which brings us to Thursday.
Some nine years ago, on the Thursday preceding Good Friday, Michelle and I arrived in Dublin for a visit. On this past Thursday, we returned to Dublin, this time bringing two children along with us. The obvious corollary is that things were much different this time around. (It is worth noting that this was my second trip to Dublin, whereas it was Mich's fourth visit.)
The upcoming posts will give you the day-by-day blow of our little excursion to Ireland, in order to try to do it justice. We did, fortunately, still have our old camera, which we brought along with us, and therefore, I will also provide appropriate pictorial support for my writings. Until then, a few introductory comments will have to suffice.
Archeological digs show evidence of settlement in Dublin as early as 7500 BC, however, it was not until 841 AD that the Vikings established their first harbor in Dublin (named "Dubh Linn" or Dark Pool, being the area where the River Liffey and River Poddle met and pooled...those creative Viking sorts!) The struggle between the Irish and the British over independence has resulted in the city being ravaged from time to time, including, most notably, the bombing of the city centre after the Easter Rising of 1916. The city still has a decent number of older buildings, and despite the fact that Ireland has only been an independent nation for about half a century, the sense of history in the city is, at times, palpable. After all, Guinness, arguably the national drink, has been brewed since 1759 - longer than the United States have been a country.
Coming next: Good Friday.
The weekend past didn't quite go as planned. (I believe the quote is: "The best laid plans of mice and men...") Saturday was pretty, and Mich and Tracy and her mom went to Guildford to explore. Mich said it was quite nice, however, our camera went on the fritz, and so there are no pictures to back up her words. We're hoping to get our camera fixed so we can take pictures with it in the future, especially given that we got it for Christmas.
Sunday was originally set aside for the St. Patrick's Day parade in London, however, when Sunday arrived, it brought with it some absolutely miserable weather. The weather was cold and wet, and any thought of going anywhere dissipated with the first step outside. The weekend passed and the week began.
We personally didn't do anything on Monday or Tuesday, although Tracy and her mom went to the Cotswolds and London. They left to return home on Tuesday night. I thought the Cotswolds were a really neat area when we drove through, and I hope to make it back there again before we leave.
Wednesday came and went, which brings us to Thursday.
Some nine years ago, on the Thursday preceding Good Friday, Michelle and I arrived in Dublin for a visit. On this past Thursday, we returned to Dublin, this time bringing two children along with us. The obvious corollary is that things were much different this time around. (It is worth noting that this was my second trip to Dublin, whereas it was Mich's fourth visit.)
The upcoming posts will give you the day-by-day blow of our little excursion to Ireland, in order to try to do it justice. We did, fortunately, still have our old camera, which we brought along with us, and therefore, I will also provide appropriate pictorial support for my writings. Until then, a few introductory comments will have to suffice.
Archeological digs show evidence of settlement in Dublin as early as 7500 BC, however, it was not until 841 AD that the Vikings established their first harbor in Dublin (named "Dubh Linn" or Dark Pool, being the area where the River Liffey and River Poddle met and pooled...those creative Viking sorts!) The struggle between the Irish and the British over independence has resulted in the city being ravaged from time to time, including, most notably, the bombing of the city centre after the Easter Rising of 1916. The city still has a decent number of older buildings, and despite the fact that Ireland has only been an independent nation for about half a century, the sense of history in the city is, at times, palpable. After all, Guinness, arguably the national drink, has been brewed since 1759 - longer than the United States have been a country.
Coming next: Good Friday.
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