Finally it was time for me to fetch David and Mom from the station. They managed to get themselves to the front 2 carraiges of the train which meant they could get off at Stonehouse (yes that is how small the station is...only 2 carraiges long) Anyway, took them straight to the flat so they could settle down a bit after having travelled 30hrs to get to me. It was so good seeing familiar faces come off the train :)
It was like christmas for me!! Delano had sent me a card and Pocohantus which I can't wait to watch! It was awesome-mom had even brought me a pack of white hard eggs cus you just don't get them here! Later on I showed them around Stonehouse-where the library, the supermarket, the post office, the bank, the pub and the pizza place are. Yip, that's basically all there is to see. Seeing as though they were tired from all the travelling, I made them an early supper and we went to sleep.
25th,26th March-Bath
You could see from a mile away that mom and David were tourists-waiting outside the bus stop with gloves, beanies and jackets on what was actually a rather nice day in Britain.
Having dropped our bags at the hostel, we walked around Bath which was great. It's a really nice town! Old, but a nice vibe with people just walking around and buskers etc. One of the things on our list to do was go to the Jane Austen centre which was interesting. Of course, it made mom want to read all her books again and left David and I wondering what was happening...
Thermae Spa grabbed us with their Twilight package which was 3hrs in the Spa, including supper-not too shabby. It was brilliant! We got given robes, a towel and slippers and went to the 1st pool which had a jacuzzi section and a hard spray thing (like a shower in the pool) and pool chairs to lounge on if you were getting to wrinkly from the water. Then the next floor up were the steam rooms. Yes, that is plural. There were 4 different steam 'domes' each with their own smell. There was Lavender, Mint, Eucaliptus and Francensense as well as basins for your feet. But that's not all...the best was the rooftop pool. This was amazing! It was freezing outside, but on the roof of this Spa was a warm pool over looking bath-truly amazing.
After the tasty stir-fry they gave us, we walked around Bath a bit and saw the Pulteney Bridge which is beautiful!! It's like there are steps in the canal which create mini waterfalls.
Our hostel was rather interesting to put it nicely...we were up on the 4th floor which was a bit of a trek, but because they had double booked our room, we got an 8 bed dorm to ourselves. The hallway lights just kept switching themselves off as they pleased which had David in histerics!! And when we went to brush our teeth, the light started flickering like lights sometimes do before they switch on. Only this one didn't ever flicker on-it just kept flickering. This was a rather funny site when mom closed the door to go to the toilet and all you could see was a strobe light effect coming out from under the door...hahaha Then just to top it off...just before we went to bed, the fire alarm goes off. but it was ok-it was just the showers which had over heated.
Next morning we went to see the glass blowing factory which was interesting-saw them make 2 vases from scratch, adding in colour which was beautiful. The Roman Baths were also very interesting! We got given an Audio tour which is a great way to go around on a tour.It was a very long tour, but so much variety and information made it very do-able. Was wierd seeing where and how people used to bath.
That night we got moved to our proper 4 bed dorm where we were sharing with a very nice australian girl who's doing a similar thing to me in London. It's odd saying this but i'm warming to Australians. I know it's very against South Africans to do this, but I will confess that the other gap, Kate, has changed me and actually made me want to go to Australia to visit her when this year is over.
If Bath is good for one thing besides history, it's good food! More like good snacks...there's a fudge factory, a cookie shop, an o-so-tasty pasty place and Sally Lunns which sells the biggest buns you will ever see!! They're like double the size and a bit bigger than normal burger rolls.
27th March-Stonehenge, Salisbury and friends in Ringwood.
We hired a car from Bath which would make the travelling for the next few days so much easier! We got given a Ford Focus which was so comfy :) On our way down to Ringwood to visit some of mom's friends, we stopped at Stonehenge which was magnificent! We were really lucky to have had such a nice day to take good photo's and walk around (yet again with an audio tour) It was crazy how all those years ago, people moved this rocks which weighed the same as 3 elephants!!! Mom then couldn't resist detouring past Salisbury to see the Catherdral which she had read about in so many books. It was stunning-eben thought they were patching some of it up. It was massive! Just a hint to anyone who wants to go there in the future-it is impossible to drive up to it and park, as we found with our continous circling round , not getting any closer to it. The best thing to do is park somewhere and just keep looking up at the steeple to find your way to the entrance by foot.
From my travel experiences so far...there's no food like home cooked food!! It was really really nice staying in Ringwood for the night with the Birchs. We went on a nice walk around their area which is close to a lake and open land before having a good meal and chatting the night away. John (Mr Birch) told us a story about when he went to visit Singapore and saw this church that has no doors or windows...only archways. He said that nothing gets stolen-none of the electrical equipment or hymnals or anything. It just stands there safe and completely open. Amazing! Met a nice German girl who is staying with them until June, trying to improve her english. I now have a place to stay if I ever go to Germany which s great!! :)
28th March-Isle Of Wight
Off we went to Southampton to catch a ferry across to the Isle of Wight to visit FANNY!! (Steph) so exciting!! Got to see her hotel, restaurant, room and meet all her new friends which was great! There are no children allowed in her hotel, so everyone there were basically pensioners-old, like my dad's age (sorry dad) but the hotel is nice, right on the beachfront which will be amazing in summer and there's a bar, snoker tables, 10 pin bowling, table tennis and gym. She has a small room who she shares with really nice girl! Got to meet Marie (the legendary girl I'd kept hearing about), Mike, Linnea (Steph's room mate) Swedish Steph, Arty, Inge, Lee and Sean-such an awesome group of people!
Mom and David were staying at a cute little bed and breakfast down the road called the Crab and Lobster where they enjoyed a good English pub quiz evening-even though they claimed to have not known much about what was being asked...
Mmm, supper was so yummy-NOT! Felt like a bit of a rabbit with my 2/3 lettuce leaves, some cheese, cucumber and a bit of tomato...wasn't really anything else but that's ok. We all (well, the girls) got ready together to go to their club called Bogies. Delightful name, I know, but it was quite a cool place! Played good music and we just jammed the night away. When we first arrived, they rejected my student card-apparently the fact that it has a picture and a birth date doesn't help. So I ended up going back to the hotel to get my ID which was a bit of a mission, but got me free entrance which was a bonus. Ended up only going to sleep on Steph's bed at about 4:30 (too much of a mission to get in the bed when I'd only be sleeping for an hour and a half anyway)
29th March-BOAT RACE in London
Oh my word! This is crazy! I'm actually going to watch the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race in London! When we had found our way back to the ferry, driven up to London and dropped the car off, we found our hotel, put down our stuff and headed off around London. It was Steph, Marie, David, mom and me. We first went to Portobello road Market cus it was so close to our hotel and such an awesome market. Mom bought such a cute Winnie-the-Pooh Babushka doll. It included winnie, tigger, eeyore, piglet and owl! Cath would be so jealous but mom said she'd be the coolest Granny having that for her grandchildren to play with. :)
I then introduced Subway to David, like Catherine had introduced it to me! It is just to die for-seriously! Anyway, before heading off to find a good place to watch the race from, we found Steph and Marie a nice hostel to stay in. The nuts had come to London just hoping they would find a place, but it turned out well.
It was time to find a place!!! oh my word!! Hectic stuff!!! It was actually happening. We met Coli at Hammersmith Bridge, which was so special cus from Grade 8 it had been Steph, Coli and I who had stuck with rowing together so to actually meet up and watch the race together was really special.
We were of course very early, so we bought some of the souvenir things like postcards. Unfortunatly they weren't selling hoodies cus I would have loved an Oxford one-guess that's just another excuse to go to Oxford someday later this year :)
We were lucky enough to get a good spot on the Middlesex side of the river at the Hammersmith bridge which allowed us to see up both ways (so we could see them coming towards and rowing away from us)
Firstly the second crews came past which just got everyone reved up for the 1st crews! There was a hectic atmosphere with everyone shouting for their university and snapping away...When the 1st crews came past us with their hundreds of speed boats behind them, they were pretty much a dead heat (Cambridge possibly even a bit ahead) which made it so much more exciting!! One girl standing behind us was like 'I'm so drunk, I don't even know who's winning' hehe. Like many others, once they were out of our site, we ran to the big screen which was on the field nearby to catch the end of what we thought would be a tight race. But alas, poor Cambridge lost by MILES, yes MILES!! haha. It had been truly awesome being a part of the excitement and would highly recommend it to anyone who is in/near London around the end of March!!
After about 10days apart, all the gaps got to meet up again for a quick catch-up which was pretty cool. So now there was James, Kate, Lynne, Ben, Kelly, Coli, Steph and me all jumping around as if we hadn't seen eachother in years. Having only got an hour and a half sleep the night before, I left them to go party and rather met up with mom and David to go off to supper somewhere.
We found a cute little Italian restaurant near where we were staying. David didn't have much luck with his order (getting some veel with his butter sauce) but mom and I enjoyed ours. We weren't sure of whether it was because I was tired or just in a strange mood, but everything seemed really funny! It was kinda contagious, so I can well understand that the three of us looked a bit odd laughing at nothing in particular. For example-the fact the restaurant was quite quiet, but had turned over about 2/3 tables while we were sitting there, led us to believe that it was probably a busy night. This of course, was extremely funny to us. Don't ask...
30th March-Lion King
Being the bright sparks we are, and complete amatures, we forgot to change our clocks forward at midnight, which lead us to going down to breakfast an hour late :) oopsy... Anyway, we went to Hamleys and spent AGES in there, starting on the top floor and working our way down through the Narnia staircase. It's the most legendary shop!! The toy which most freaked me out was the mechanic/fluffy dog which actually grew, learnt it's own name, it's owner's name and 2 songs with the owner's name-freaky stuff!! Managed to find Alan a pack of Liverpool UNO cards which we thought would be the perfect present.
Before we knew it, it was time to make our way to the Lyceum Theatre to watch The Lion King production. It was brilliant. Absolutly amazing!! The costumes and props were unbelievable! My favourite were the giraffes which were people on stilts (both on their arms and legs) So their arms were the front 2 legs and their legs were the back to legs of the giraffe, with a long neck attached to the top of their head...if you can picture it. The way they did the running of the wildebeasts was also very well done! Definatly a must see!!
We were lucky enough to enjoy a home cooked meal that night at another 1 of mom's friends. I now have a big appreciation for home cooked meals :)
31st March-London Zoo with Ingrid.
Was really good to see my cousin which I hadn't seen in AGES! We organised to meet at the zoo seeing as though non of us had been there yet. It was HUGE!! took us 3hrs to go round all the different sections. They has african animals, bearded pigs, birds, reptiles, fish, monkeys, bears, butterflies, otters, and more.
Camden Market is always a must-do when in London. The people and stuff being sold could keep you entertained for hours!! It's just all so different and interesting but some of it still really cool. So we went round there quickly as well before saying good bye and heading back to somewhere near our hotel to have supper. On our way home, we managed to get lost in Harrods for 2hrs, only coming out with some food :) and took a leisurly walk through Kensington Gardens even though our feet were killing us after being on them for the past 6 hours walking around. Before going into the restaurant we wandered into one of those souvenir shops which is quite deadly-we ended up walking out of the shop with a bright green wheely bag which mom thought was very appropriate going to Ireland and all and a whle bunch of those badges you sew on bags of where you've travelled. I know it's kinda counting my chickens before they hatch, but seeing as though I already have the tips booked, I thought I would be safe.
We found the nicest Italian restaurant called Bella Italia (for those of you who are wondering why I keep telling you about my meals-it's cus food is a very important time of the day for me...) anyway, this place was sooo good!! And the bonus was that we had a pamphlet which got us a discount off our bill :) Mom and I found a lot of amusement in chasing David down the road while he was pulling his new bag which kept having speed wobbles. I think that might have been another one of those moment things...yet again-the people that saw us doing this shot us odd looks...crazy foreigners...
1st April-St Albons with Helen Northampton with Eileen
On the road again...except everytime we moved. packing got harder. Our bags were shrinking or something...
On our way to Auntie Eileen, we stopped at yet another one of mom's friends (so popular!!) who lived in St.Albons. We went straight to the waffle house which was great! :) We also picked some rhubarb from her garden (dad would be sooo jealous), went on a lovely walk and went to a cute lil pub called the wicked lady. Then it was time to head of to Northampton to Eileen where we would be staying 3 nights. Mom kept saying how you have to be young and fit to travel which is true! wow, constant moving is very tiring!
2nd & 3rd April-Northampton
Finally a day where we could just wake up whenever we did, eat whenever and whatever we wanted, catch up on some emails and reading and just chill out. Mom and I even took a stroll down to Tesco's which was HUGE!! And i mean HUGE!! It was like a whole Constantia Village in one. In the Tesco's, there was-a post office, media section, clothing section, appliance section, hardware section, food section obviously, book section and alcohol section. It was crazy and we had fun just 'window shopping' with what mom called her 'monopoly money'.
When Eileen got home from work, we had a good supper and played 2 board games. 1 being articulate and the other cranium. Once again, we were in histerics!! David and I were against mom and Eileen for both games. Articulate is quite similar to 30 seconds except that each turn you get a colour and you have to explain the word that corresponds with that colour on however many cards you can do in 20/30 sec whatever it was. Being the very intelectual beings that we are...David and I ended up looking at most of the cards and throwing them away before looking at the next one to try and explain. Of couse, this was highly amusing and resulted in us using up our time laughing at eachother. Then the other game involves you moulding dough, humming a tune, acting, drawing with your eyes closed, spelling and answering general knowledge question. I moulded tho coolest record player out of dough, which David didn't manage to get...it even had that spike that goes onto the record and speakers and a music note coming out of them and everything.. Anyway, Eileen acting as a drunk person, trying to make mom get stag night made up for it and had us all rolling around on the floor.
The next morning was a nice day, so we headed off for Cambridge where we would visit Jean (my cousin) and David (her husband) Mom and David were actually really lucky with the weather the whole trip! Pity they took it back home with them again when they left...Got to see Jean and David's new house which was so cute! They're planning hectic biuld-ons which will almost double the size of the house which will look amazing then. After a cup of tea, we left them and went on our own mission around Cambridge. We visited King's College (which is the most famous) and then just walked around watching people getting rides on the river and everyone cycling around us. It's such a beautiful city and would be an awesome place to study!! Pity bout the poor rowing-hehe-suckers!! :)
4th April-Birmingham with the Lawrences
Curry muncher town...
The funny thing about visiting people is that they feel like they should entertain us or take us on a day trip, which is nice cus we get to see more places etc, but it can get really tiring. Nevertheless, we went to Stratford-upon-avon for the day just because we could...it is a beautiful little town with it's canal, foot roads and old buildings. Mom and I (David and Heather weren't so keen) went into Shakespear's Birthplace which was really interesting! We learnt that the saying 'good night, sleep TIGHT' came from the fact that the ropes of the beds the kids used to sleep on had to get tightened cus they would jump on them and loosen them. We also learnt that Shakespear was only 18 when he got married, Anne was 26 and 3 months pregnant already!! Shock horror!!
We had a really good evening at an Indian Restaurant where we met up with 2 of the Lawrences' friends. Besides eating way too much...the restaurant was so nice, giving us wipes after our meal, jelly babies and white mice (little chocs) instead of peppermints, a complimentary baileys for whoever wanted and a rose for the ladies as we walked out.
5th-9th April-Cork with Cath and Al
It was indeed my turd time going to Cork this year so far (and there will be many more i hope) and everytime it's just sooo cool!! The view we saw while coming over the Irish coast was just amazing! When it comes to the end of the continent, there aren't any beaches or anything, just a drop. So the coastline is made up of these stunning cliffs.
Anyway, Cath and Al had organised for us to go away for the night to a place called Achill Island (about 5hr drive from Cork on the west coast) We kept ourselves occupied during the car trip by singing along to the Lion King and Aladdin songs, eating pad kos of course, reading 30 seconds cards to eachother and spotting cute, little lambs.
When we got there, we went straight to a viewing point to try catch sunset...it was like in those movies when the people are chasing a hurricane on one of those long, straight roads with only fields on either side and a mountain ahead with a huge cloud creeping over the top. hehe. Little did we know how intense the weather would be when we got out of the car...we were literally blown of our feet at this viewing point. We did get our sunset, well, those of us that actually stayed outside in the crazy weather. Mom, who was the warmest dressed i'll have you know, was snuggly sitting in the car, laughing at us freezing ourselves, trying to stay put on the ground. Ag, that's where memories are made hey?
Pub grub was on the menu that night which is always enjoyable. The thing about the countryside is that everyone is just so laid back it's great :) like the live musician who came into the pub at about 9:30, but only started playing about 10:30...and even when he did play, it was only a couple of songs before enjoying another pint.
The next morning an interesting shower was to be had. There were tokens in the shower which had to be put in a little machine which started the water flow. This meant you had no control over the length of the shower, intensity or temperature of the water. Let's just say I've never washed myself and my hair so quickly, only to end with plenty of time left of waterflow. Later I found out that David had slotted the token in again and used 2 full water cycles-what a girl!
Going back to how laid back countryfolk are...when we were leaving the hostel, which was more like a big, old house, we couldn't find anyone to pay...guess 9 30am is a bit early for them, but they were up about 11 30 when we went back.
We had had plans to walk up Croagh Patrick which is one of things to do in Ireland, but the weather wasn't being so helpful. Instead we just took a drive around. When we stopped at a beach to look out at the view etc, I asked who wanted to join me in a crazy monkey run into the water. Being the legends that my siblings are, David and Cath were all for it and off we went. Having taken off some of our layers to save them for when we got back in the car, let's just say we were a tad chilly clambering over the rocks, runnig on the freezing sand and finally splashing around in the good Irish water. It was a bit harder running back to the car, with the wind pumping against us and having to carry 2 huge ice blocks which were once my feet...But, being the nutters that we are, we agreed to do it again cus Alan had messed up the filming. Some things in life are imprinted on your memory forever-i think that will be one of mine!
All that excitement called for a nice, warm breakfast which we found in a pub. This is where I was lucky enough to try black and white pudding which is something I never got around to doing in Scotland. It isn't actually bad tasting at all-it's more the idea of it that is off putting.
Lucky for us, the weather had started to clear up so our walk was looking promising again. We decided to see how it goes cus we could always turn around and come back down if it got miserable. Besides being rather cold (with me being a true south african in shorts), the walk was quite nice. The view was stunning and kept getting better the higher we went. When we reached a bit that got ridiculously steep, we left mom to wander back down and enjoy a hot cup of something while we went on to the top.
Bearing in mind that the wind was pumping, the temperature dropping and the gradient inclining, we were relieved to reach the top in one piece. There was even a suprise for us at the top-SNOW!! David's 1st time and my 2nd :) There wasn't a lot, but I managed to make my very 1st mini-me snowman! I had to use my imagination a bit and he ended up with grass as his buttons and eyes, but he was still a little legend.
t was awesome at the top-having snowball fights and trying to take in the amazing view. We had literally just turned our backs to see off the other side of the mountain and when we turned back, there was a solid cloud coming over the mountain, covering us like a dome. It was pretty amazing the way it just came over so quickly and before we knew it, our view was just a sky full of white. On the way down, it snowed on us very lightly and lets just say we were pretty chuffed at our impecable timing.
The way back was again filled with car games like boys/girls names using the alphabet and 'I packed my bag and in it I put...' The only difference was playing with Alan, who added a new dimension by always starting his turn with: 'I packed the car and in it I put my bag which contained...' We even made up our own version of the 8 Days of Christmas having 8 foster's beers, 7 pairs of shoes, 6 mini coopers, 5 beer mugs, 4 orange carrots, 3 computer games, 2 magazines and a ham and cheese sandwhich..
We got home quite late, so just had a quick supper and went to a very welcoming bed.
David hadn't yet played Hurling in Fitzgerald park, so Alan, David and I met Cath there once she was finished with her morning lectures. We just had some fun hitting around for a while before changing to a bit of rugby cus Cath claimed she needed to practise her throwing. This was hilarious because she would hold the ball in her hands and do a fast waddle, head down of course, before making the C with her arms and throwing the ball. This was repeated numerous times, much to the amusement of Alan, David and myself.
The rest of the day, we just chilled around the house and showed mom and David around town. So funny how I kinda know where things are now too-feel like I live there myself :) We found a pub which had certificates on their door for having the best traditional music, which was prefect for that night! So after supper, we headed down to culture ourselves. It was very traditional with a girl on a violin and a guy on the piccalo. Then a bit later another 2 came and joined in-another violinist and a girl on a squeeze box. One of them would start a song and the others would just join in-it was so realxed.
Next morning the boys headed off for a haircut while the lovely ladies went shopping. We met up just in time to find somewhere to have some lunch. Cath had been keen to take us to an American Diner for the experience, which is exactly what we did. It was called Eddie Rockets and was very typical movie-style diner with the duke boxes at every table and the outfit the staff were wearing and the big burgers with milkshakes. (was really cool how they gave us the silver thing that the milkshakes are made in with the left overs in it so even though it doesn't all fit into the glass, you can still have all of it by simply topping up your glass)
When we got back home, a bit of poker was an awesome way to spend the afternoon :) It was David, Cath, Alan and I who were fighting it out while mom caught up on some work and emails. It was a very close game with the money always changing hands, but I ended up with the bucks at the end :) Cath second and well, the boys bringing up the rear. I managed to round up 5 euros 30 more than her tho!!
Was quite sad our time in Cork was already over, but once again it had been an awesome time with the Valkenburgs.
9th April-Birmingham with the Lawrences
Back again at our last stop before the end of our journey-kinda sad but also nice going back to a place that is yours where you can properly unpack and wash stuff and a bed that is familiar etc. Just had a very laid back night in with the Lawrences chatting about everything and nothing and watching the football.
10th April-Stonehouse
There's no place like home! We remembered to be in the 1st 2 carraiges which was good, but the weather wasn't when we got out. We had to walk back to the school in the rain with all our bags. nice, warm shower and off to the pub for our last supper together. It was really good-the food and the pub and just chatting etc. I sacrificed my bed for David cus I'm such a nice sister :) which ended me up on the couch, but they had another 30hr journey ahead of them so they deserved the beds I thought.
11th April-D-day
Can't believe how quickly 3 weeks went...felt like yesterday when I was walking down the road to fetch them from the little Stonehouse station I've become so familiar with. It was so good having them over here and travelling around with them! We really had a great time with lots of photo's, visiting of friends, good food, new places and many more laughs...
