Weekends from Reading..

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After a couple jobless days in London on return from our European adventure. We jumped at two positions within commutable distance basing ourselves in Reading (clearly not cut out for unemployment). So, we farewelled our new housemates and jumped on the three hour bus to Reading.
After a couple days in the nurses quarters we moved into a sharehouse with a Frenchman, Englishman, Indian and Italian close to the city centre and train station for commuting to work. Neither the cleanest or the friendliest bunch but with no international trips on tha agenda we kept busy with weekend trips...
(Unfortunately we've lost most of the photo's from these weekends!!)

Birmingham weekend.
After a flat out week of work we rushed back to Reading to collect our hire car for the weekend. Inspite of their internet site's promises they weren't able to collect us from the train station as planned so we caught a taxi to the to depot in the depths of the industrial estate. From here the problems started as they requested us to return the vechical during working hours... physically impossible. After much debate to the point we agreed not to hire the car and ordered a taxi, they eventually agreed someone could meet us on Sunday afternoon and then cancelled the taxi. Finally, a couple hours later then planned we set off. Despite maps and google instructions we got lost within the first turns ending up back in Reading forty-five minutes after we set off. Tempers fuming we finally set off in the right direction along dark and narrow English roads and strangely avoiding all major motorways and any civilisation.... google maps at its best. Arriving after nine we dropped our car off at Vicky's who had kindly offered to have us stay and caught a taxi into town to nearly surprise (unfortunately the surprised slipped out earlier!) Jenna and Addy's at their golf themed going away party. We cruised from pub to pub each with a score (drinks card) to complete before then end off the evening. We finished the night on par shall we we say at the ever famous Snobs. Despite what its name may suggest its far from a classy place but with good music and selling the cheapest drinks in town it was a winner.

They next day we cooked up big breaky to get us started and we meandered down the road to see how the hosts had pulled up... better then expected. We headed into town for a bit of shopping returning for an afternoon nap. Refreshed we joined Vicky for dinner at the local Indian restaurant and had enjoyed a relaxing night in.

We set off early Sunday keen to do a bit of sight seeing before we had to have the car back. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed driving through the lush English countryside. We returned to the motorway (new instructions) only to take a wrong turn on one of its many round-a-bouts. Who decided it was a good idea to put huge round-a-bouts in motorways (highways) I'll never know. Realising our error we turned around with Windsor Castle in our sights. But somehow we ended up back in Reading missing it altogether!! Deciding to call it a day we dropped out gear off and phoned the rental company guy to arrange drop off. Returning to our car only minutes later to discover we'd got a ticket parked without displaying a local permit. Bugger! And if things couldn't get worse we got lost on the way back to the rental depot, accidently leaving our map at home, requiring a stop to ask for directions and a disgruntled chap waiting for us.


Newbury Races Weekend
After a quite Friday night in. We dolled up Saturday morning set for the Newbury Races with some mates from work. Races in the depths of winter was a new concept for us... despite all the fuss worrying about what to wear (heels, dresses and suits definitely didn't make the backpack cut!) no-one actually takes there coats off anyway! Coldness aside it was a fantastic day, Carly got a handy tip at the bar backing winner in the second last race to go along side our couple places we managed to finish the day even.... well nearly! We returned back to Reading for a dinner and drinks with the gang.

After a morning of domestics, Vicky (from our African adventure) picked up up and drove us to her georgous little cottege in Harley Whitney for a afternoon of reminscing wine and Thai fishcakes.
(Sorry no pics!)

Manchester Weekend
After another busy week of work we rushed to the train station bound for Manchester. After the three and a half hour packed journey we were met at the station by Mark and Chrissie who we first met on the Great Wall of China. Fittingly we took the short walk to Manchester's China Town for a feast of Peking Duck and Tsingdo and swapped travel adventure stories from the last 18months since we'd seen them in Australia. After a fantastic meal we returned to there lovely pad for more beers and stories.

After sleep in and some bacon sanga's for breaky we headed out in a perfect crisp winters day. Under brilliant blue skies and sunshine we took a leisurely wander around the Deer Park. The deer relatively unphased by their human admirers as they soaked up the sun and tucked into lunch.
We sidled up as close as we deemed safe keen to avoid one of the antlers up the arse! Next we stopped at Willowhole nursery and cafe for a warm drink and bite to eat. But it wasn't your average plant nursery displaying a random array of old.... well everything from gazebo's, old bath tubs, chicken planters and massive neonlight statues. The cafe isn't typical either, with it's tables arranged in small open huts with fitted with patio heaters and blankets. After discussing our favourite pieces with tucked into some Hot toddy's and mulled wine and cake in the cosy hut. We returned back to Chrissie and Marks for a lazy afternoon of Christmas movies and popcorn!
That evening we joined in their house 'rewarming' party after over two year honeymoon travelling the world. A fantastic evening of wine and cheese... perhaps just a little too much red wine .. nah no such thing!
Needless to say we all made a slightly slower start, feasting on an amazing English Breakfast and and relaxing with a paper. Before long it was time to return to the train station for the journey back to Reading.
It was a fantastic weekend.. thank you soo much for having us guys! Can't wait to come back soon.


Winter weekend in London
After another week of work a caught the train to Clapham. We gathered our crew Shea, Vic, Justin and Hazel and headed to the Natural History Museum Icerink for an entertaining skate on the ice in picturesque surrounds. Despite a hesitant start we were all soon in the thick of things dodging those crashing to the ice with their astonishingly loud thuds! We escaped injury free and headed to our second UK home (Justin and Shea's) with some delicious Vietnamese takeaway from our adopted local and sticking with the Christmas theme watching the movie.. Elf.

After a sleep in we set off to met Gareth (from Birmingham) ahead our the Arsenal V's Stoke Soccer game. A quick beer and catch up before the match and we took our seats amongst the Arsenal members mid pitch along side the fiery Stoke supporters. It was a thrilling start with three close shots at goal within the first five minutes. The game then settled to a its usual pace, and after a few more attempts at goal we were starting to wonder whether we would ever see a goal. Shortly before the end of the first half Arsenal scored. The second half kicked off with another goal to Arsenal finishing Stoke 2 zip!
After the game we joined Gareth and his mates for a couple beers before returning back to Clapham for a Nintendo Wii tournament with the boys.

Sunday we met up with Jez's old school mate Jason and his wife Tanya at the Winter Wonderland German Christmas market at Hyde Park.Where we found a cosy stall with delicious German beer (ahhh the memories of Oktoberfest came flooding back) and some traditional mulled wine. We tucked into some Kranskys and wandered around the massive park of rides and side stalls. With darkness creeping up on us, we wished Jason and Tanya well on the European adventure and made our way back to Reading ahead of another week of work.

The rest of our time in Reading flew by with Monday night dinner dates with Vicky and the Oasis crew, Tuesday night ' Wii Game nights' with Shea and Jez with Skype link up, Wednesday's arvo's off with visits to the gym and keeping our return home a surprise!

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