Blogs from England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 1879

Welcome to Heathrow... Friday, December 22-23, 5:15pm We arrive from Iceland. The original plan had been to spend the night in London and come back to the airport in the morning for our continuing journey. That was when we were arriving at noon, had our luggage, and outdoor visibility was greater than 2 feet. From London's Daily Mail newspaper for that day: It is difficult to explain to anyone visiting these shores how a dose of winter frost and fog can so easily envelop one of the world's leading airports in chaos and calamity, compelling its national airline to wipe off hundreds of flights at a stroke and stranding passengers for hours, maybe days. For the second day running, these were the horrendous scenes at Heathrow as nearly 200,000 people struggled to get away for Christmas. ... read more

Thursday at work I was a bit tired, but got loads of work done as hardly anyone was in! I arrived a bit later than usual (10ish!) and left earlier than usual (4ish) but probably did more work in the time! It was the last day at the office! In the evening Wayne, Jeff, Lucy, Katherine and I all headed out to town. We went to Haha, Out of Office Hours and the Hippo. Lucy ‘hates’ hippo but due to the RnB flavour and the great company declared it a great night! The police boys from the night before joined us at Hippo and were just as much fun again. Katherine declared that Hippo was not as good as Escape - she was right! The décor is a bit dated! We still had a great time. ... read more

My first host family, Mrs Lynne Munden and Mr. Edward Munden, is living in Shropshire. I spent 6 days with them and a Chinese student, Vincent, during the X'mas holiday. This couple is so kind that they taught me a lot of British cuisines and table manners. They also told me about the British culture, history and their experiences when they were young. During the X'mas day, their son Brian paid a visit to us and we together spent a nice evening in playing card games. This joyful and warm circumstance made me feel a home away from my home. It also quenched my nostalgia during this special day. ... read more

What happen's at the party, stays at the party, but at least I can introduce you to some of the faces at Hamptons.... read more

After 19 months working for the University of Manchester, I've taken the opportunity for Voluntary Redundancy, which will allow me some time to work on writing, catching up with people, and - most importantly - travelling. The last day at work was great - having been counting down for the last 24 days (the advent calendar was a great idea Karen, although it confused a few people as I started to open it 24 working days before 21st - appeared a bit premature!) I finished off the last few bits of work, left everything neat, with notes for others to take over, then dashed around saying goodbye, before going for our office dinner at Pacific in Manchester's China Town (v. nice food!). In the afternoon, after watching a bit of ice skating, headed for url=http://www.kro.co.uk/control.php?_command=/DI... read more