June 25th: the grand ol duke of York, he had 10,000 men... he must have been a bit of a goer

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June 25th: Off to York, experienced the "get kids ready for school" morning pandemonium that Emma had warned me about, then headed off to the station and (afer chucking some money across to my HSBC acount) travelled from Leeds through to York.

Once again experienced that instant familiarity which will of course be missing (for better or worse) once I stop visiting places that I've been to before.
I met up with my friend Susi, we had a look around bookshops (I'm nearly done reading Stephen King's "11:22:63") then off to have a bit of lunch and a good catchup.
The weather had done a bit of a number on York, and, while we were able to walk along the riverfront for the most part, there were occasions where we had to keep on trying till we reached the Higher Ground.
The weather stayed fairly pleasant after I'd walked Susi to work so I wandered aboutbeing a tourist again. Everytime I've been to York over the years I ALWAYS forget my camera... I made up for it today, I have to admit though that I am terrible at the handheld 'self photo' that all lone travellers are forced to take at some point or other, I mean I'll try a bunch of times but each picture looks the same and i'll have this dull concentrating look on my face or my nose hairs are on display or double chins.
I went back to teh bookshop and bought: a Dave Grohl bio (apparently the author has known Grohl for 15 years so hopefully it's not shit) a Polish phrasebook, Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: a trilogy in four parts" and a Roald Dahl book... I didn't realise that he wrote books for adults as well but apparently he does.

From there I wandered through the shambles (look it up) and then on to meet Eli, another person from the LOST (2004) forum I post on. The meetup felt slightly awkward at first, possibly because we hadn't talked so much on the net before meeting, but once the conversation was flowing we both eased into it and relaxed... and is it any surprise? I mean anyone who enjoys oldschool Dr Who is going to get a tick in my book! Had a wild boar burger... I am so Obelix

Headed back to Leeds, day well done.

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Photos

Me & Susi
a kiwi and a German in England, how exotic

York's wall
the impregnable defences against the Scots (yeah right)

the Doc & I
Me & Eli guarding the wall