Tea and Crumpets

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For the final stint of our time in Europe we headed to England for some home-cooking, creature comforts, and quality time with family and friends. Mum and Dad picked us up from the airport in London and we drove up to Bury. We spent a day doing much needed laundry before being joined for the weekend by Gary (my brother), Milena (his girlfriend) and my grandma. Luckily we had amazingly good weather for Britain in October so we were able to do some days out, interspersed with a few beers in a country pub here and there, of course (when in Rome...)

During the week we did lots of hanging around, lots of free internet and some afternoon trips with my parents when they were not working. Most evenings we cooked a meal (well, OK, mum cooked a meal apart from one night when Scott and I made fajitas) and worked our way through a bottle of wine and several beers.

On our second weekend, my parents drove us down to Nottingham where we spent time with my aunt Wendy and her family, and my best buddy from uni, Andrea and her boyfriend Paul. We said we'd take the dessert around to Wendy's and chose a gorgeous-looking banoffee cheesecake. When we got to the house we discovered that Wendy was horrifically allergic to bananas - oops! Luckily we had a chocolate gateaux, too. I guess you know you've been away too long when you forget your own family's allergies!

From Nottingham we took the National Express bus down to Guildford to stay with Gary and Milena. It was only at that point that I realized just how crazy the safety regulations have become in the UK. We got on the bus and the driver announced that everyone had to wear their seatbelts. What?! I've never heard of that on a bus before. He also said that everyone had to keep their shoes on - wierd! When we changed buses in London, there were signs stating that it was "extremely dangerous" to wait for the bus outside the barrier. It just seems so over the top considering that, in a few days time, we will be in a country where people fling themselves at moving buses and mothers throw their new-born babies from 5-storey buildings for good luck. Yep, we are off to India next!

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Photos

At the Last Drop Inn with my family
Mum, Dad, Me, Scott, Grandma, Milena, Gary

Comments

[barbara]

Thanks for sharing
Scott, John is good enought to share the blogs with me when he remembers. This is as close to free wheel traveling as I will ever get. Thanks for sharing. Barbara Kelly

[Born to travel]

I'll try to add you...
Hi Barbara, Glad you are enjoying following our travels. I have just written your email address down and will try to add you to my address list. That way, you should receive an email notification when we update, and John won't have to forward them to you. Then, you just click on the link for the latest blog.