I'm happy to be back on blogger, and writing a blog. Really. I am. I'm not just saying that.
Okay... I'm back from the U.K. and feeling a bit tired. It was a fabulous holiday. We saw tonnes of friends and family, and My Lady and I enjoyed ourselves very much.
But... Let me just give you a brief itinerary:
- Leave Tuesday night Jan 15th for britain
- Arrive 9:00am GMT, spend day with friend Lucy, spend evening with Abi, Rick and Chris and stay over at their flat
- Spend Thursday in London, get on evening train to Guildford to see friends Anastasia, Lucy, Toby, and meet Pete (great guy) Anastasia's new beau
- Stay night in Guildford, awake with slight hangover. Goof off in Guildford. Toby shows up late, we all stay in... Much enjoyment, 6am go to bed. Yep.
- Wake up around 1:00pm. Go to lunch, hop train for Hemel Hempstead to see father-in-law, Roger
- Dinner out with Roger, bed at reasonable time
- Spend day with Roger in London, Fiona goes out to see friend Lucy P. in London
- Back to Hemel, dinner by Roger, reasonable bed time.
- Wake up, hop train to Canterbury from Hemel (through London), arrive Canterbury around 2:00pm on Monday, see little Sarah, Sandra P, and walk to KIAD bar to see who else is around... Run into Trish, say hi... She calls Ben McKee, he calls everyone... Go out with Ben and have great evening in Canterbury... We LOVE Coffee and Cork.
- Spend most of day walking around Canterbury, have a great time... But... It's back to London. Arrive latish, at Abi, Rick and Chris' flat, stay for night
- Wake up BLOODY early (5:00am) to get the darn tube to Heathrow. Sit at Heathrow for two hours PAST when our flight was meant to ARRIVE in Newcastle... Finally leave, get to Newcastle, pick up hire-car, and drive to Blythe to see Fiona's grandparents. Nice dinner, nice talk... Fiona goes to bed, and Ken and Win give me an interview. I think I passed (right Ken?) went to bed.
- Spent nice day with Grandparents, after a nice lay-in, went out to Fiona's Uncle and Aunt's house for dinner... Liz, amazing meal... Thanks... Went back to Fiona's grand parent's house... Bed at 'reasonable' hour
- Got up fairly early (not as early as hoped) to get on road for Scotland... Had to do 'errands' before arriving at Fiona's parent's house... Got to Selkirk, bought me a feileadh mhor, and Fiona a 'mini-kilt' so she can be all sexy in our own tartan... Drove up to the Glenkinchie Distillery in Pencaitland, Scotland. Took the tour, made some photos, and then... Drank and bought some whisky. Finally done, we drove back down to St. Boswells, home to Fiona and her family.
- Had a nice evening out with the in-laws, and spent time with the family. It was really quite nice.
- Went to bed a bit late, awoke on Saturday, to spend most of day with family. Went up to Edinburgh, for a fun day of underground tours, and went out to dinner in Dalkeith. Returned home, and Fiona proceeded to go through all the stuff we left in her parent's loft. Boxed up stuff to ship home to the States, drank a bit more whisky, went to bed.
- Woke up for Fiona's brother's Birthday on Sunday (happy b-day again Sam) a bit earlier than would have wanted due to an attention-addicted dog. (Yes, I still love the big galumph). Had a nice lunch with Fiona's family (grandparents came up from England for the day), and headed back down to Newcastle to return the hire-car, and get a flight back to London.
- Landed in London around 10:00pm, had to get from Heathrow up to Bethnal Green, long trip, arrived latish to Abi, Rick and Chris' flat. Sorry guys...
- Woke up, had the day to ourselves, and our friend Lexie and her beau Charles came up from Canterbury to London. We all went out, had one HECK of a pub crawl thoroughout central London... Went back to the Bethnal Flat, and crashed. Gah... Did we crash.
- Woke up with probably the worst hang-over of my life on Tuesday. Had to catch a plane in the morning, so had to work through it... Made it to London-gatwick on-time. Caught the flight... And...
- Arrived to the coldest night/day of the year in Minnesota. Gah.
So... There you go... The entire trip, in a few bullet-points. Needless to say, it was amazing, fun, torturous, and wonderful.
We miss it already, and it's going to be another year before we can return.
We love you all, back in Britain, and thank you... Obviously, individual grovelling-thank you's are on the way soon.
Smiles and kittens, everyone. To my MN friends... I'll let you in on the pictures when I see you!
-- Tuckmac
