Mobility and independence!

Finally, FINALLY, I bought a car! It's a sexy little beast, as yet unnamed. I pick him up on Tuesday. This means that not only do I have the independence to do all those normal things that people do (like grocery shopping), but I can also go on weekend road trips and day trips to see more of the area where I live. Bring it on!

I'm a bit of a tard

Somehow, in gloating about having finished my update and sitting in the sunshine, I seem to have forgotten an entire trip. Another episode in the "Sarah is a tard" saga.

The day after my birthday BBQ, I went to Wales for the weekend, this time for someone else's birthday. Aunty Ann (my great aunt) turned 90, so the extended family got together for the afternoon. She was delighted to have everybody there, as that is what's most important to her. She also had a visit from the Mayor and Mayoress. Aunty Ann's cake was definitely better than mine!

I'm also posting a couple of photos to show you how green it is now that Summer has rolled around - bit different to the last time I was there, in the snow!

Back to the present

I now find myself up to date. Back to sitting around, soaking up the sunshine, killing ants, wondering if I'm getting sunburnt, not caring if I AM getting sunburnt, and wondering what else to do now, given that it's 4pm and I still have at least 5 hours of sunlight left.

The next trip was going to be Pamplona, Spain, to see the running of the bulls. I've decided in the end not to go, as it is only a week after I start my new job, and although they said that I could take the two days off, I don't really feel that it's the right thing to do. Doesn't worry me too much though, as there's always next year.

That leaves me thinking about what next, and I'm wondering still if the answer might be Ireland. Thanks to my new job starting in July, I'm now getting paid for Summer, instead of having to slog it out in a supermarket or pub. So Ireland, Scotland, maybe North Wales - who knows? I still want to go up to Yorkshire and look around up there, and see the other end of Hadrian's Wall (I saw one end of it on my trip to the Lake District). Of course, I could always go back up there now that it's a different season, as it will look completely different. And there's always plenty to do in London as well - Wimbledon is coming up, so is the cricket, and the usual tourist attractions are still there.

If only I was good at making decisions!!

The anniversary of one's birth

After Gloucestershire, I had a few days off, which coincided with my birthday. A birthday I'd tried very hard to once again ignore, but someone managed to find out all the same. The general consensus had been to go out for dinner, but I put my foot down on that and instead suggested a BBQ at my place. Great plan - apart from the fact that I didn't actually HAVE a BBQ.

A quick trip to Argos later, and I not only had a BBQ, I also had a filled gas bottle. I put it all together in the middle of my lounge room. Why didn't I do it outside, I hear you ask? Well, in typical British form, it was pouring rain. Honestly, it seems like if we go a day or two without rain, it gets made up for by constant rain for the next few days. Nevertheless, I got it all put together, defrosted some steak, and had the best dead cow I'd had in months.

When everyone arrived for the actual event a few days later, I warned them that this was a new BBQ, and that I wasn't necessarily going to do the best I could do until I got used to it (it also has a wire grill, instead of cast iron). Apparently though, if this was a rough go, I am to inform them all when I get it right, as it should be absolutely brilliant. Perhaps it's because the English aren't known for the "fire + meat = excellent" ways, but they were all thrilled. I was too - thought I might have lost my touch a little after so long without one!

One of the gifts that I received from my parents was money for a Nintendo wii. I finally bought one - best birthday present ever! If only my arms didn't ache so much from tennis and baseball...

Cheese Rolling Festival

Not a great deal happened between going to Paris and the Cheese Rolling Festival, a month later. Well, plenty happened, but nothing of real interest, and nothing travel-related. It all revolved around work, work, and more work. Work for a school that decided that I was good enough to run a staff in-service for, but not good enough to continue to employ. Bitter? Yes. But moving along.

The cheese rolling was... insane. It was cold. It was muddy. It was totally English. The basic premise is that you take a 70-80lb wheel of double gloucester cheese, chuck it down a really REALLY steep hill, and watch people go A-over-T trying to chase it and be the first down the hill, therefore winning the cheese. We spent the weekend in Cheltenham, driving over there on Saturday (with a not-very-brief stop at Ikea in Bristol), Sunday in Oxford and around the Cotswolds, and Monday at the festival before driving home.

I don't have pics of it, as I was on video duty, and I can't be bothered logging in to facebook to steal someone else's pics. Check out a few of the clips on youtube - totally insane!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpzEF0D2xfE

The sun is making me so lazy, I can't even be bothered writing the html to make that a proper link. Just click it, watch it, and build a bridge.

On a side note, the actual temps for that day were about 7 or 8 degrees. The rain and wind chill made it much worse. By the end, I was dry from the knees down thanks to my wellies, dry wherever my mac covered me, and wet and cold for the rest. So cold, in fact, that I couldn't bend my fingers at all. The things we do for a bit of entertainment!

Back to Paris

The next day, instead of going to Disney Studios with the others, Banana and I headed back into the city, intent on hiring bikes and seeing the sites that way. It was mad fun! The scariest moment was probably early on, whilst I was still building up a bit of confidence doing something that I hadn't done any time in the last decade. Paris has a lot of dedicated bike lanes, but as we approached the Louvre, that dedicated bike lane became a shared lane with buses and taxis. Hot fun. After that though, we cruised along through the park (until getting into trouble for riding there by some random guy with a whistle), and up towards the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. We got some great photos, and even some entertainment when we stopped to have a look at the map, and I dropped the bike (admittedly it was very heavy at the front, therefore not evenly weighted), and not only made some noise, but ripped the map and spilled the contents of my bag onto the pavement (think camera, mobile phone etc - all fun to drop). I'm a class act.

We then made our way through some of the back streets, along to the Paris Opera House. Next time, I'm going in! Finally, we headed back to the main tourist track, returned our bikes, and had an impromptu picnic on the grass, before heading back to cold England.

Eurodisney

Following our huge trip the previous day, we were equally as excited by the thought of finally going to Eurodisney (AKA Disneyland Paris). Banana and I were up early, intending to go and grab some breakfast before meeting the others. What followed was slightly more unexpected, in that we had to travel some way in order to find anywhere that was open and selling food, and then we had to deal with our first case of French arrogance. However, we survived that, and headed out to Disneyland itself.

Given that we were a grand total of 7 minutes late (not bad given neither Banana nor myself speak French, and where we'd been), the others had already gone inside the park. Turns out we were virtually next to each other, as we'd planned the same kind of route for the day, but Banana and I did our own thing. We fast-tracked one ride, and then headed over to the Indiana Jones ride. We caught up with the others for lunch, and went in our own directions again.

Finally at about 4pm, Banana and I decided it was time to stake out a spot to watch the parade from. What followed was comedic in a Monty Python or Fawlty Towers kind of way. I was ringing my other friends, desperate to have them join us, as we were going to lose our spot right on the edge of the road to an army of stroller-wielding guerilla parents. Banana and I were kicked, punched, rolled over, shoved and rammed, all in the name of a good viewing spot. It was so worth it though - I was more excited than the kids trying to climb over us when the parade was finally on!

Ain't life grand?

The weather is perfect, the house is clean, the washing is done, I've read over 150 pages of my Gordon Ramsay book and my arms are too sore to keep playing on the wii. So I find myself parked out the back, in the glorious sunshine, watching the birds have a feed at my expense (I allow this because it appears the slug war has been won, with their help).

What else to do but finally get my slack butt into gear and not only finish my French update, but add the latest? I know, I know - about bloody time. I hear you. I'm a procrastinator, and I'm very good at it. Deal with it.

On a different note, I finally found out the names of the druid stones in South Wales. My illustrious cousin Julie (I SEEEEE YOU!!!!!) informed me that they are the Gorsedd Stones, located in Treorchy. Now I just have to do a bit a research to see what else I can find out about them.

Onwards and upwards, dear friends.