Another post about Ireland
This time to say that we have put up the photos from our last Ireland trip (August last year)
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Northern Ireland - April 25 - 27
Well Duncan and I maxamised our Carbon Footprint (not in a good way) by taking a cheap flight to Belfast on Friday night. Once we arrived at the airport we picked up our hire car and headed north to the coast.
Our destination was a small harbour village called Ballintoy, and a hostel called Sheep Island View. It is a gorgeous little town and true to its word the hostel did have a view of Sheep Island... this being more of a great big rock than an island, although it did have lots of green grass on top. It was said that the Island had enough grass to fatten 10 sheep, feed 11 sheep or starve 12, that is if you could get them up the sheer cliffs and onto the grass!
We had been a little worried about the weather because the forecasts had suggested it was going to rain all weekend, and as we walked down the driveway with Seamus the owner of the hostel, we though that this was going to be so. But as he said "four seasons in one day" and after a short intense shower in the morning, it fined up to be mostly sunny for the rest of the day. And although it was still quite cool with the breeze, I still managed to get sunburned on my nose.
Our first stop was Ballycastle the neighbouring town where we found the local bakery for breakfast. From there we drove to down to Ballintoy Harbour. One thing i found quite remarkable was the location of the harbours. It seems when you are driving around the Irish coast that nothing is at sea level but that all the towns and villages are raised up and separated from the sea by cliffs. Yet follow a small road or glen and your a sure to find a small harbour, beach or seaside town.
The harbour at Ballintoy was so quant and wild it was lovely, we found a little cave in the cliff which i tried to explore but it had a small lake to cross and I didn't quite trust the stepping stones.
Next it was onto the Giant's Causeway a natural wonder of Basalt columns, if you are a geologist then you would beleive that it was the result of some sort of ancient volcanic wonder, but however I am more inclined to beleive another story. It is said that there were once two fearsome giants. One named Finn MacCool lived in Northern Ireland and anothe Benandonner lived across the water in Scotland. There was much rivarly between these two giants as to who was the bigger and stronger and better giant, but they had never had the opportunity to meet to decide this. So Fin MacCool decided that the only way to settle this was to meet face to face. As there were no boats big enought to carry a giant, Finn MacCool built a bridge, a causeway if you like so that there would be no excuse for Benandonner not to come. However as he saw Benandonner coming across the causeway he panicked as he realised that Benandonner was a much bigger and stronger giant than he. He hurried to the hills to seek advice from his wife Oonagh. She dressed him in a night gown and bonnet as a baby and placed him in a makeshift crib. When Benandonner arrived at the giant's house looking for Finn MacCool, Oonagh invited him in asking him to not wake the baby. Benandonner took one look at the baby and fled back to Scotland, saying if that's the baby I have no wish to meet the father.... As he ran he tore the causeway up with him so that Finn MacCool could not follow.
On the way to Giant's Causeway we passed Dunseverick Castle, which was not so much a castle as more a pile of rocks, but the piece of real estate it was sitting on was certainly beautiful, and once again it had its own secret tiny little natural harbour.
In the afternoon we visited the Bushmills distillery. Bushmills is the oldest Whiskey distillery in the world and was having its Birthday the week we were there. Lucky timing... it was 400 years old. We did a tour which was quite interesting but i didn't find it quite informative enough, i felt there were topics left unanswered and so i was the class nerd asking all the questions. I did learn the major differences between Irish Whiskey and Scottish Whisky (apart from the spelling). The barley used for Irish Whiskey is dried in hot dry air, whereas Scottish Whiskey is dried from the smoke of peat fires. Also the Whiskey distilled at Bushmills is distilled three times which is unlike most Scottish Whisky's that are only distilled twice (although apparently this is not a hard and fast rule). The tour of course concluded with a tasting... 12 year old single malt only available for purchase at the distillery, fortunately for Duncan even this expensive one didn't appeal to my taste buds, so he got two.
From Bushmills we went to Dunluce Castle, which was very impressive, once again set on a rocky outcrop and once again like many of the old buildings, built just that bit close to the ocean, and during a dinner party in the 1600s the kitchen fell into the sea!
We headed back to the hostel for a nap before dinner and got sidetracked along the way by a van selling fresh chips......... mmmmmmmm local irish potatoes freshly cooked while you wait, not something that you get a lot of in the UK. It was soo good. So after the chips we went back to read our books and have a nap. The pub down the road had live music but it wasn't starting until 10. Unfortunately the live music wasnt quite as good as what we had become accustomed to following our trip to Doolin. It consisted of 1 man (who was struggling with his sound decks), his guitar (which you may or may not hear, depending on what setting his sound decks were on) and some interesting backing tracks..... we stayed for a few songs to be polite and then went home to bed :)
Sunday morning after breakfast, we went to Whitepark Bay for a walk along the beautful wild beach. We then went to Carrick-a Rede Rope Bridge which was used by local salmon fishermen before becoming property of the national trust and then a tourist attraction. Walking across the 30m high bridge with ocean pounding away below was fun for me, although a little nerve racking for Dunc... unfortunately his nerves affect his coordinaton and he accidently dropped the lens cap for my camera over the bridge. I think he enjoyed it though as long as he didnt look down :)
From the Rope Bridge we headed south east along the coast through the Glens of Antrim. We stopped for lunch at the gorgeous Cushendun, which I think I could have easily lived in.
From there it was back to Belfast, we folded Duncan in to the tiny space that Ryan Air sells as a seat and headed back to London.
Our destination was a small harbour village called Ballintoy, and a hostel called Sheep Island View. It is a gorgeous little town and true to its word the hostel did have a view of Sheep Island... this being more of a great big rock than an island, although it did have lots of green grass on top. It was said that the Island had enough grass to fatten 10 sheep, feed 11 sheep or starve 12, that is if you could get them up the sheer cliffs and onto the grass!
We had been a little worried about the weather because the forecasts had suggested it was going to rain all weekend, and as we walked down the driveway with Seamus the owner of the hostel, we though that this was going to be so. But as he said "four seasons in one day" and after a short intense shower in the morning, it fined up to be mostly sunny for the rest of the day. And although it was still quite cool with the breeze, I still managed to get sunburned on my nose.
Our first stop was Ballycastle the neighbouring town where we found the local bakery for breakfast. From there we drove to down to Ballintoy Harbour. One thing i found quite remarkable was the location of the harbours. It seems when you are driving around the Irish coast that nothing is at sea level but that all the towns and villages are raised up and separated from the sea by cliffs. Yet follow a small road or glen and your a sure to find a small harbour, beach or seaside town.
The harbour at Ballintoy was so quant and wild it was lovely, we found a little cave in the cliff which i tried to explore but it had a small lake to cross and I didn't quite trust the stepping stones.
Next it was onto the Giant's Causeway a natural wonder of Basalt columns, if you are a geologist then you would beleive that it was the result of some sort of ancient volcanic wonder, but however I am more inclined to beleive another story. It is said that there were once two fearsome giants. One named Finn MacCool lived in Northern Ireland and anothe Benandonner lived across the water in Scotland. There was much rivarly between these two giants as to who was the bigger and stronger and better giant, but they had never had the opportunity to meet to decide this. So Fin MacCool decided that the only way to settle this was to meet face to face. As there were no boats big enought to carry a giant, Finn MacCool built a bridge, a causeway if you like so that there would be no excuse for Benandonner not to come. However as he saw Benandonner coming across the causeway he panicked as he realised that Benandonner was a much bigger and stronger giant than he. He hurried to the hills to seek advice from his wife Oonagh. She dressed him in a night gown and bonnet as a baby and placed him in a makeshift crib. When Benandonner arrived at the giant's house looking for Finn MacCool, Oonagh invited him in asking him to not wake the baby. Benandonner took one look at the baby and fled back to Scotland, saying if that's the baby I have no wish to meet the father.... As he ran he tore the causeway up with him so that Finn MacCool could not follow.
On the way to Giant's Causeway we passed Dunseverick Castle, which was not so much a castle as more a pile of rocks, but the piece of real estate it was sitting on was certainly beautiful, and once again it had its own secret tiny little natural harbour.
In the afternoon we visited the Bushmills distillery. Bushmills is the oldest Whiskey distillery in the world and was having its Birthday the week we were there. Lucky timing... it was 400 years old. We did a tour which was quite interesting but i didn't find it quite informative enough, i felt there were topics left unanswered and so i was the class nerd asking all the questions. I did learn the major differences between Irish Whiskey and Scottish Whisky (apart from the spelling). The barley used for Irish Whiskey is dried in hot dry air, whereas Scottish Whiskey is dried from the smoke of peat fires. Also the Whiskey distilled at Bushmills is distilled three times which is unlike most Scottish Whisky's that are only distilled twice (although apparently this is not a hard and fast rule). The tour of course concluded with a tasting... 12 year old single malt only available for purchase at the distillery, fortunately for Duncan even this expensive one didn't appeal to my taste buds, so he got two.
From Bushmills we went to Dunluce Castle, which was very impressive, once again set on a rocky outcrop and once again like many of the old buildings, built just that bit close to the ocean, and during a dinner party in the 1600s the kitchen fell into the sea!
We headed back to the hostel for a nap before dinner and got sidetracked along the way by a van selling fresh chips......... mmmmmmmm local irish potatoes freshly cooked while you wait, not something that you get a lot of in the UK. It was soo good. So after the chips we went back to read our books and have a nap. The pub down the road had live music but it wasn't starting until 10. Unfortunately the live music wasnt quite as good as what we had become accustomed to following our trip to Doolin. It consisted of 1 man (who was struggling with his sound decks), his guitar (which you may or may not hear, depending on what setting his sound decks were on) and some interesting backing tracks..... we stayed for a few songs to be polite and then went home to bed :)
Sunday morning after breakfast, we went to Whitepark Bay for a walk along the beautful wild beach. We then went to Carrick-a Rede Rope Bridge which was used by local salmon fishermen before becoming property of the national trust and then a tourist attraction. Walking across the 30m high bridge with ocean pounding away below was fun for me, although a little nerve racking for Dunc... unfortunately his nerves affect his coordinaton and he accidently dropped the lens cap for my camera over the bridge. I think he enjoyed it though as long as he didnt look down :)
From the Rope Bridge we headed south east along the coast through the Glens of Antrim. We stopped for lunch at the gorgeous Cushendun, which I think I could have easily lived in.
From there it was back to Belfast, we folded Duncan in to the tiny space that Ryan Air sells as a seat and headed back to London.
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Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Feb, March and 1/2 of April!!!!!!!
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who would have thought that two whole months have gone by without updating this blog... so naughty so apologies but this will be a long one... you will need popcorn and probably some form of japanese torture to keep you awake.
Feb also saw the debut of a brain child of Mark Radford and me.... Restaurant Club. The concept is that because we are all spread all over London and always seem to be so busy that we would set a date every month to meet up at a different Restaurant in London. This way we get to see our peeps and experience a bit more of London. So every month on the 15th this happens. Feb was a restaurant on Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a street in London that is famous for its curry houses, unfortunately I didn't make it to this first monumentous evening, although Duncan and Grant did. Duncan and Grant almost didn't make it back from 'Fifteen' (the name of the club), they socialised to late, missed the trains and decided to walk home! I think Duncan's reputation with sense of direction is well known and clearly Grant is not that much better after a few beers. Needless to say it took them a loooong time at at somewhere around 3am they rolled or should i say poured into bed.
March
So fly in March, and we celebrated the arrival of March with a trip to Cambridge. The sun was shining, the daffodils blooming and the day was gloriously freaking cold!!!!! But Cambridge is breath taking, it has all of the beautiful architecture and gardens that one would think of when one thinks of the 'toffey nosed English'. Kings College is beautiful with the spectacular Kings College Chapel, but I also loved the Trinity College which secrets its beautiful garden and chapel away from the crowds behind a big door. What I loved even more about Trinity though, was above this big door that keeps the crowds out or the students in is a stone statue of a Saint who in ages past had his golden sceptre removed by future world leaders and replaced with a wooden table leg that still remains today.
Best of all in Cambridge is punting!!! It was really really windy and a couple of the touts recommended that we didn't punt our own punt-oon, but hey you can't go to Cambridge, go punting and not punt your own punt-oon (not sure what the correct term is). So we paid a little extra for cushions and blankets (a worthy purchase) and out we went. Grant was our first captain, then Duncan, then me then Vic. It was more stable than I thought it was going to be, until Duncan stood on the punting platform and then it got really wobbly, so Duncan stood on the level that we all say and punted from there. Fortunately he had the height on his side. So punting although harder than it looks was great fun!!
We started the morning with a trip to the Eden Project, a series of Biodomes that exhibit different plant ecosystems (http://www.edenproject.com/ ) It was quite interesting with a large focus on carbon footprints, sustainable industry and what we can do to help the environment and live cleaner lives. It was quite interesting, although I felt a little overpriced. I guess we were comparing them to the Biodomes we visited in Montreal, where we felt we got more bang for our buck.
After the Eden Project we went to Mevagissey and had lunch in a pub on the Harbour. Due to the shape of Cornwall (http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/corn-map.htm) so many of the villages are fishing villages on the coast. After this we drove to Truro which being right smack bang in the middle is the 'administrative centre of Cornwall' that means not a lot of site seeing to be done, but a convenient hub from which to access the other highlights of the region.
Belinda had organised a small terraced house on a hill in Truro that had a lovely view down over the town Cathedral. The main supermarket and the pubs ;) were within walking distance and we enjoyed that on Friday night!
The next morning we drove to St Ives, we parked at the top of the village and caught park and ride down into the car. St Ives is beautiful.... a perfect seaside resort with beaches as lovely as i have seen them in England. It was in St Ives that we encountered the weather that was to plague us for the entire weekend. Wind, and I am not just talking a little breeze, I am talking about blow you off your peninsular wind - it was incredible, it didn't stop us site seeing but it did stop us going for any of the scenic walks along the cliffs :(
After walking through the streets of St Ives we stopped at the Tate Cornwall, no encourage our taste for the arts but to go upstairs and have morning tea while looking out over the ocean. Dunc and I braved the wind and walked out onto the point while Belinda and Gavin staid in the cafe.
We headed north from St Ives to Watergate bay just north of Newquay, most recently put on the map by Jamie Olivers 'Fifteen - Cornwall'. The restaurant was impressive for a couple of reasons, firstly its location overhanging a long wide beach, secondly it is run by a charity, many of the staff are under priveleged/street kids who are learning a trade in the restaurant. Quite a good intiative. The food was... delicious, although Belinda wasn't all that happy with hers Duncan and I had the same dish and it was amazing... pork ragu with parpadelle pasta and balsamic sauce.... mmmmmm and an orange chocolate mousse cake for desert.
We drove back to Truro past a farm shop where we bought some local produce for breakfast.
Easter Sunday, I am ashamed to say did not start with us going to church.... very disappointing I know but we did have a sleep in :) ! We headed south and got sidetracked to the village Marazion, from here there were wicked views across the bay to the small island and castle that make St Michaels Mount. At low tide you can walk there, so we parked the car, got out and then it started to pour - it was big rain - so we got back in the car and kept driving. A little further down the way we stopped at a beautiful heritage listed manor house for cream tea, cornish clotted cream is THE best thing in the world. From there we contined on to Lands End where we were greeted with sunshine and more wind. We were "blown away " by the view (i know i know ha ha) and it was cool to be standing on the most southern point in England. Unfortunately the wind was so extreme that it was quite impossible to be out in it for very long. So back in the car we went.
Our next destination wasthe picturesque hamlet of Mousehole (pronounced mowzel) which was the cutest little harbour town. It had a two massive breakwaters built to shelter the entire harbour from the ocean force (and the wind), with only a small opening for the fishing boats to get in and out. The restaurant we had lunch in (as recommended by the parking attendant) was one of Brittains top 50 seaside restaurants.... and lunch was lovely. It was here in a bowl of mussels that Belinda and Gavin found and adopted Russel the Crab in the Mussel. A tiny wee crab that had obviously been captured before the mussel was cooked and also got cooked as well. Apparently Russel was too important to eat so therefore came site seeing with us for the rest of the weekend :)
Finally we reached Lizard Point, another spectacular peninsular with amazing views. Once again Dunc and I went for a walk along the paths while Bel and Gav went and had a coffee (i am seeing a trend here) We joined them later and had the yummiest piece of cake. We ate in in our little apartment that night, playing poker and watching Belinda get hilariously intoxicated and dancing on the stairs :)
Easter Monday was a long tedious day negotiating the bank holiday weekend traffic back to London, this was compounded by some excellent town planning and road infrastructre.. (hint of sarcasm) the main road in and out of Cornwall from London in about 5 or 6 different locations changes from 1 lane to 2 lanes and vice versa... it would be better if it just stayed as one lane because at least it would flow, but this way very one sped up on the two lanes and then ground to a complete halt as a general inability to merge took hold. I think it took us about 8 hours to get home and it took about 4.5-5hours to get there!!!
Who would have thought that two whole months have gone by without updating this blog... so naughty so apologies but this will be a long one... you will need popcorn and probably some form of japanese torture to keep you awake.
February
So after Valentines day saw a couple of weeks of work work the weather was fairly mild in February this year, different from last year when it was cold and snowy. The Highlight I have to say was going to the West End to see Hairspray.... loved it!!! great energy and colour, Dunc found the first half a little slow but enjoyed the second half.Feb also saw the debut of a brain child of Mark Radford and me.... Restaurant Club. The concept is that because we are all spread all over London and always seem to be so busy that we would set a date every month to meet up at a different Restaurant in London. This way we get to see our peeps and experience a bit more of London. So every month on the 15th this happens. Feb was a restaurant on Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a street in London that is famous for its curry houses, unfortunately I didn't make it to this first monumentous evening, although Duncan and Grant did. Duncan and Grant almost didn't make it back from 'Fifteen' (the name of the club), they socialised to late, missed the trains and decided to walk home! I think Duncan's reputation with sense of direction is well known and clearly Grant is not that much better after a few beers. Needless to say it took them a loooong time at at somewhere around 3am they rolled or should i say poured into bed.
A week later Duncan celebrated his 30th birthday, talk about dragging it all out; Eurodisney for the weekend, dinner out on the actual day and a month later a party. It was the highlight of everyone's February social calendar (probably because is Feb it is too cold and no one has anything planned hee hee), held upstairs in the Market Porter, an old Pub in the famous Borough Markets (the markets themselves have been running for longer than white man has been in Australia!) It was a really fun night, and great to catch up with so many people that we hadn't seen for ages, it ended up with a cab ride home late at night. Some friends crashed on our futon, which was great for them - not so great for our floor though which got covered in some red wine regurgitation. I think Grant and Duncan also had very sore heads the next morning ha ha!
I worked a few extra weekends in February, boring....!
It appears that that summarises February - either we had a particularly quiet month or it has just been so long since February that I can't remember any of it :)March
So fly in March, and we celebrated the arrival of March with a trip to Cambridge. The sun was shining, the daffodils blooming and the day was gloriously freaking cold!!!!! But Cambridge is breath taking, it has all of the beautiful architecture and gardens that one would think of when one thinks of the 'toffey nosed English'. Kings College is beautiful with the spectacular Kings College Chapel, but I also loved the Trinity College which secrets its beautiful garden and chapel away from the crowds behind a big door. What I loved even more about Trinity though, was above this big door that keeps the crowds out or the students in is a stone statue of a Saint who in ages past had his golden sceptre removed by future world leaders and replaced with a wooden table leg that still remains today.
Best of all in Cambridge is punting!!! It was really really windy and a couple of the touts recommended that we didn't punt our own punt-oon, but hey you can't go to Cambridge, go punting and not punt your own punt-oon (not sure what the correct term is). So we paid a little extra for cushions and blankets (a worthy purchase) and out we went. Grant was our first captain, then Duncan, then me then Vic. It was more stable than I thought it was going to be, until Duncan stood on the punting platform and then it got really wobbly, so Duncan stood on the level that we all say and punted from there. Fortunately he had the height on his side. So punting although harder than it looks was great fun!!
The next week saw me start a new job at Kings College Hospital, the best thing about this is that Kings is only 1/2 an hour door to door. Woo hoo!! The sad thing though was I left all the friends I made at St Heliers. It was my choice though, I decided that travelling an hour and a half too and from work was getting too much.
That same week Dunc decided he would go skiing without me..... apparently it was a 'work thing' ;) He went Les Gets in France and I think it was good. Me I went out with the work girls a couple of times, and of course we had the second meeting of Fifteen. This time it was a Brazilian restaurant kind of a BBQ buffet, lots of swords with meat and chicken hearts, followed by drinks at the London institution Walkabout (?!)
Of course the beginning of this year has been thrown into turmoil with such as early easter. It was not far enough after Christmas to do any decent saving to really make the most of the long weekend. Nor was it far enough after Christmas for it to be warm enough to go somewhere warm or camping. So after much deliberation Belinda, Gavin, Dunc and I drove down to Cornwall.
We started the morning with a trip to the Eden Project, a series of Biodomes that exhibit different plant ecosystems (http://www.edenproject.com/ ) It was quite interesting with a large focus on carbon footprints, sustainable industry and what we can do to help the environment and live cleaner lives. It was quite interesting, although I felt a little overpriced. I guess we were comparing them to the Biodomes we visited in Montreal, where we felt we got more bang for our buck.
After the Eden Project we went to Mevagissey and had lunch in a pub on the Harbour. Due to the shape of Cornwall (http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/corn-map.htm) so many of the villages are fishing villages on the coast. After this we drove to Truro which being right smack bang in the middle is the 'administrative centre of Cornwall' that means not a lot of site seeing to be done, but a convenient hub from which to access the other highlights of the region.
Belinda had organised a small terraced house on a hill in Truro that had a lovely view down over the town Cathedral. The main supermarket and the pubs ;) were within walking distance and we enjoyed that on Friday night!
The next morning we drove to St Ives, we parked at the top of the village and caught park and ride down into the car. St Ives is beautiful.... a perfect seaside resort with beaches as lovely as i have seen them in England. It was in St Ives that we encountered the weather that was to plague us for the entire weekend. Wind, and I am not just talking a little breeze, I am talking about blow you off your peninsular wind - it was incredible, it didn't stop us site seeing but it did stop us going for any of the scenic walks along the cliffs :(
After walking through the streets of St Ives we stopped at the Tate Cornwall, no encourage our taste for the arts but to go upstairs and have morning tea while looking out over the ocean. Dunc and I braved the wind and walked out onto the point while Belinda and Gavin staid in the cafe.
We headed north from St Ives to Watergate bay just north of Newquay, most recently put on the map by Jamie Olivers 'Fifteen - Cornwall'. The restaurant was impressive for a couple of reasons, firstly its location overhanging a long wide beach, secondly it is run by a charity, many of the staff are under priveleged/street kids who are learning a trade in the restaurant. Quite a good intiative. The food was... delicious, although Belinda wasn't all that happy with hers Duncan and I had the same dish and it was amazing... pork ragu with parpadelle pasta and balsamic sauce.... mmmmmm and an orange chocolate mousse cake for desert.
We drove back to Truro past a farm shop where we bought some local produce for breakfast.
Easter Sunday, I am ashamed to say did not start with us going to church.... very disappointing I know but we did have a sleep in :) ! We headed south and got sidetracked to the village Marazion, from here there were wicked views across the bay to the small island and castle that make St Michaels Mount. At low tide you can walk there, so we parked the car, got out and then it started to pour - it was big rain - so we got back in the car and kept driving. A little further down the way we stopped at a beautiful heritage listed manor house for cream tea, cornish clotted cream is THE best thing in the world. From there we contined on to Lands End where we were greeted with sunshine and more wind. We were "blown away " by the view (i know i know ha ha) and it was cool to be standing on the most southern point in England. Unfortunately the wind was so extreme that it was quite impossible to be out in it for very long. So back in the car we went.
Our next destination wasthe picturesque hamlet of Mousehole (pronounced mowzel) which was the cutest little harbour town. It had a two massive breakwaters built to shelter the entire harbour from the ocean force (and the wind), with only a small opening for the fishing boats to get in and out. The restaurant we had lunch in (as recommended by the parking attendant) was one of Brittains top 50 seaside restaurants.... and lunch was lovely. It was here in a bowl of mussels that Belinda and Gavin found and adopted Russel the Crab in the Mussel. A tiny wee crab that had obviously been captured before the mussel was cooked and also got cooked as well. Apparently Russel was too important to eat so therefore came site seeing with us for the rest of the weekend :)
Finally we reached Lizard Point, another spectacular peninsular with amazing views. Once again Dunc and I went for a walk along the paths while Bel and Gav went and had a coffee (i am seeing a trend here) We joined them later and had the yummiest piece of cake. We ate in in our little apartment that night, playing poker and watching Belinda get hilariously intoxicated and dancing on the stairs :)
Easter Monday was a long tedious day negotiating the bank holiday weekend traffic back to London, this was compounded by some excellent town planning and road infrastructre.. (hint of sarcasm) the main road in and out of Cornwall from London in about 5 or 6 different locations changes from 1 lane to 2 lanes and vice versa... it would be better if it just stayed as one lane because at least it would flow, but this way very one sped up on the two lanes and then ground to a complete halt as a general inability to merge took hold. I think it took us about 8 hours to get home and it took about 4.5-5hours to get there!!!
On Tuesday the 25th of March, just after coming back from Easter we got rugged up (coz it was really cold that week) in preparation to go and see the play 'Speed the Plow' which was starring Hollywood superstars Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum. We were standing at the door debating whether to drive or catch the bus when Duncan wisely checked the tickets and luckily he did because we were a week early!!!
One momentous even of March was the arrival of my Wii.... yes we have a Wii and I would like to come right out and say that it was not my idea but as we didn't pay for it since playing with it I humbly concede that it is good fun! My favourite game is the boxing although I was sooooo sore the next day after playing this.
The 29th of March was the day of 'The Boat Race'. Every year since 1829 Oxford and Cambridge have challenged each other to a race on the Thames. It attracts the crowds in droves but lucky for us it wasn't what we knew but who we knew, so we went to Gavin's place for a Boat Race bbq, it was raining all afternoon so we stood on the balcony and watched them start the race and then watched the rest of it on the tv.
So a week later and on the right day we went and saw Speed the Plow... it was really good. Short compared to the west end musicals that I am used to, but it was very energetic and had snappy fast paced dialogue that required your full attention - so it was a good thing that it wasn't quite as long.
April
I can't beleive its April!!!!! At the beginning of the year Duncan and I were commenting how sometime in 2009 we would be leaving London and now here it is and we are almost half way through the year... I can hear you saying, 'not quite..' but you just wait it is going to be christmas before we know it :)
Once again I started the month working at Harley Street.
Duncan and I also started playing netball (Can't remember whether that was March or April now) again, this time a little closer to home. We didn't have a team but just joined with a whole heap of randoms, and luckily have a great group of people - and more importantly a pretty good netball team :)
The 15th of April of course saw the third restaurant club and this time we went to Crispy Duck in China Town which was really really good and our biggest turn out yet I think we had 18!!!!
So that is halfway through April anyway..... I won't start more holiday talk in this post, but will tell you about Northern Ireland in the next one....
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