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Published: February 7th 2009
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Sunday 21st - Friday 9th January 2008 We'd planned to spend Christmas in England with Alex and so arrived on her doorstep late on the 21st, after a mammoth journey from Vienna via Bratislava, which involved three buses, two trains, a plane and (worst of all) the loss of two bottles of Chrissie booze. Fortunately, we arrived to good old English teacakes, cups of tea and a festive (warm!) lounge room.
On Monday morning we were straight into it with a trip with Jamie and Adriana to Brighton (they had arrived from Vienna a couple of days before us). We checked out the beach, the pier, wandered in and out of the shops in the Lanes and had a great lunch at a very English looking pub, while watching an orchestral group playing carols out in the street. Without a doubt though, the highlight of the day for me was Snooper's Paradise, which is this huge, ramshackle maze of an op shop with the most amazing collection of old stuff..... I could quite happily have snooped for hours.
The couple of days before Christmas were filled with rather painful, last minute present buying - there is nothing worse
Day Out in London
Adriana, Jamie, Me, Jane and Phil than trying to think of that perfect gift one day before Christmas. We'd decided to give Alex a gift voucher for a beauty/wellness treatment and spent a good hour walking up and down the main street of Epsom trying to find an appropriate place (the male grooming shop did have women customers, but we didn't think a gift voucher from 'male grooming' would go down so well with Alex). On the up side, I got to choose my own present this year because Sean had accidently bought me a dvd box set, not realising we already had that particular season. He realised as he went to wrap it up, so we managed to get back to HMV on Christmas Eve and swap it over for something else.
Christmas and Boxing Day were rather relaxing for Sean and I, but I don't know if I can speak on behalf of everyone. Alex was busy cooking a divine feast for thirty (there were ten of us), Jamie was showing the first signs of a flu and Niamh and Carrig were swept away with excitement over 48 hours of Christmas Present Heaven. With wintry walks through the Common and lots of indoor
boardgames (btw, the Berlin wall did come down in 1989!) it was exactly how I imagined Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere.
The other big event was the arrival of Jane and Phil at Heathrow on the 28th, who were then spending 3.5 weeks travelling through London, Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and Budapest. Jane's eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, but despite this we ended up spending a full day sightseeing and shopping in London. (They both passed out on the train home.)
Jamie and Adriana left on the 29th, so Jane, Phil, Sean and I did a day trip to Bath. The first stop though, was Stonehenge. We arrived just after 9am, which was great because the sun was still coming up (yes thats right, at 9am!) and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We listened to the audio guide, but there was only so much we could stand because it was just so damn cold. I'm not sure of the exact temperature, but it was below zero because all of the coffee table tops were freezing again after being wiped down.
Next stop Bath. I absolutely loved the day we spent here in June
and knew that Jane would like it too. Jane and Phil did the Roman Baths while Sean and I ate Cornish pasties and wandered around the main street. Then we all went on the Mayor's Free Tour, which took in the main sights, but wasn't as good as the one in June. This was because our group was rather large, because one of the other tour guides was sick and because it was again just so cold. We finished the day in the Thermae Bath Complex, which is well worth it, even though it is a little on the expensive side. It was dark by the time we were in the complex (5pm) so the rooftop pool (think lots of rising steam and freezing cold air) was pretty spectacular. We had a great dinner at a pub on the outskirts of Bath and so didn't get back to Alex's til late. Jane and Phil were tuckered out again and couldn't even remember leaving Bath...... thanks for driving us all Sean!
We parted ways with Jane and Phil the next day after tea and scones at Richmond House and Alex dropped us at Luton airport that afternoon. Again, the journey
Brighton
Deserted in December home seemed long, probably because I started getting a stomach ache (I blame clotted cream) and we didn't get home til after midnight. The stomach ache was somehow the start of my flu and I spent the New Year in a daze and the first week of 2009 on the lounge shivering and sleeping. New Year's Eve was fairly quiet. We wandered out with Jamie and Steve to check out the very random fireworks in Vienna. I have never seen anything like it. The Viennese go crazy with fireworks and fire big, commercial-like ones wherever they please (someone was firing them out of the aparment window next to us into our tiny courtyard). With fireworks going off at people's feet and being thrown into the street, it was a little like being in a warzone.
Just as well that we had a quiet first week though, because it gave us enough time to start getting ready to move out of our apartment and get ready for the arrival of Jane and Phil in Vienna.......
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