Hello, again. Been in Newbury for about 6 weeks now and have decided to finally update you on what I've been doing. I'm sure most of you know I've been living with Matt and his family (mom, dad and brother, Andy), in Newbury, since I got here. It's really great, and I'm so fortunate that his parents have let me stay here. Their house is lovely and their garden (NOT yard) out back is very pretty as well. They have a rabbit, 3 chickens, apple trees, coi pond, a hot tub and a small vegetable garden.
(Matt's room is the top right)
The first weekend after I got here Matt's mom, Sarah, had her family over for a bbq. I met all of them. It was quite overwhelming, but they were all curious who I was after hearing some girl was coming to Newbury to stay there with Matt. I volunteered to help Sarah bake before the bbq to take some stress off her to get everything done before the day. As I wasn't used to the measurements here, or their fancy (and celcius) oven, I created some cupcakes that I was utterly mortified of. I think you all know I LOVE to bake and haven't had anything come out wrong in AGES. Luckily Matt came home for lunch the day I was baking and set me straight. AND, to make things worse, I knew his mom baked wedding cakes (WEDDING CAKES!!) and I (having talked about loving to bake) had produced something to the effect of cupcake turds. They were the tiniest little things you've ever seen, and definitely not baked all the way through. (sigh)
My second batch turned out...better than the first ones but not by much. :( Not such a great success as I had imagined.
I'm pretty sure she'll never ask me to help her again, but I think that's ok with me. I didn't take a snap of them, but recently I made some scones and they turned out lovely. So there.
The Newbury Rugby Club where Matt also works nights and weekends and where his friends play rugby together.
I have been lucky enough to have met some of the WAGS of Matt's friends. (Wives and Girlfriends....tho, no wives yet, that I know of, but that's what they call us). They're really great and were REALLY welcoming when I met them all. I met Woosie (that's her last name, couldn't tell you her first but that's what they call her) that first weekend of Matt's mom's bbq and she gave me a great big hug and said, oh its so nice to finally meet you. I really like her. Vanesa, Sam, Nikki and Robin I met at a drinks get-together one night soon after I got there. That night Nikki invited me to a burger-and-beer night with her, Woosie and Vanesa. It was really great to be included as I'm so far from home and haven't had a lot of girl contact like this since I left! Matt and I did go on a 'booze train' outing with two other couples, Phil (Simbo) and Nikki, and Chewy (his first name escapes me at the moment) and his girlfriend Hetty (they call her Hefty...so mean). We bought tickets on the train that runs through Newbury and on (might be the one that goes all the way to London) and at every stop we got off and went to the local pub near the station. It was really fun.
The other night I was also invited to Vanesa's with Woosie for a chat/snack sesh. So nice to have some girls to talk to. Matt 24/7 is nice and all, but its nice to be able to whinge to someone about how annoying something is and have them agree. Woosie's good for that. We seem to be a lot alike.
One of the first places we went to on a weekend off was to Stonehenge. Not as amazing as I thought it would be, but still amazing enough. You can't get within, say, 30 feet of it (and I understand why) but still woulda been nice to see it more up close.
Then we headed down to Southampton for an overnight and then Portsmouth. Southampton had an enourmous shopping mall with a massive H&M (clothing store) where I bought a super-cute coat (as it's practically winter weather here for me). In the morning we headed to Portsmouth to the Gunwharf Quays where there are ships you can go see and the Spinnaker Tower. We had a nice lunch out on a patio of a restaurant, then walked around to the Dockyard to see some of the ships.
On the way down to Portsmouth we stopped to see the Salisbury Cathedral. Pretty impressive.
A few weekends after that we headed down to Bath on a Saturday night after Matt got off work and stayed with his aunt Sue and uncle Phillip who live near there. They were nice enough to take us out to dinner at a pub near a lock and Sue was helpful and picked us up some pamphlets on Bath for the next day. She even cooked us an English breakfast the next morning and lent me two books, one on Buddhism (!). Bath was such a cute little town. I loved it. We decided on a free walking tour given by the Mayor's fully-trained honorary guides. The best part is that they don't expect tips/gratuities so you're not left at the end feeling uncomfortable about the amount you should give them. And our guide was really knowledgable, enthusiastic and interesting. The tour was two hours and took us through the Royal Crescent, the King's Circus (a circular street of connected houses), the Queen's Square, the Assembly Rooms, and our guide told us about Jane Austen, who lived here for a time, and some other stuff.
( The Royal Crescent, a residential road of 30 houses, in a crescent shape (duh). The homes have housed some notable people over the last 200 years.)
(The Assembly Rooms, a gathering place for members of the higher social classes for events such as masquerade balls, public concerts and assemblies. Note the pig to the right of the doors. The lions are the second creation to be sold at auction, the pigs, having been inspired by King Bladud's pigs, the first. More on him and the pigs/lions later.)
(Bath Abbey)
Matt and I also went and saw the Roman Baths (not included in the tour) but an amazing thing to see as well.The Roman Baths are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century. You're not allowed to go in them, but in true boy-fashion, Matt just HAD to dip his toe in, not once, but twice. Supposedly, the British King Bladud discovered these springs in 836 BC and claimed the spring cured him and his pigs of leprosy. The Great Bath is the main bath and its massive...and really green.
(The Sacred Spring...where the water bubbles up first...can you see it?)
(The Great Bath)
Walking around Bath was really great. The architecture of the buildings is amazing, as are the little shops tucked in. I particularly like the way England does the pub. I love the way they decorate the front, with a nice sign (with a GREAT name!) and flowers hanging. Its lovely.
(Just a view down a street during our walking tour)
(There are a collection of 100 individually decorated lions around Bath. They'll be sold at a charity auction.)
(This is a small tea house that was suggested to us...it had neither scones or tea, both of which we were really looking forward to. Nice enough tho.)
Just this last weekend we went to London to see Matt's brother, Simon, and do some errands whilst there. It only took a little over an hour to get there, even though the motorway was closed and re-routed us through back streets. Simon lives in East London near the Thames. His flat looks out over it. We, unfortunately, didn't go for sightseeing, but we did do a lot of walking, heading first to West London to the Thai Embassy to put in our application for our Thai visas. We had to give up our passports which made both of us nervous. We won't know if we got them until Simon picks them up sometime when he gets some free time. Then we walked from there through Hyde Park and up to Oxford street where I picked up a purse I'd been eyeing and hemming and hawing about for some time, and then off to sell this gaudy ring I found in the ocean on Whitehaven beach in the Whitsunday Islands in Oz. We figured whatever we got for it could be used to get dinner and drinks for the night for the three of us.
(Bet you'll never guess how much we got for it? £65. Yep. And the exchange rate is a little over 1.5...so almost a hundo. Sweet! And incidentally, it did pay for food and drinks all night. Perf!...I bet it came from a fat, hairy, sweaty Italian guy who happened to accidentally chuck it off his yacht...sucker)
(Down the river from where Simon lives. We walked along this to a Saturday market for breakfast.)
(Matt and I in Hyde Park. Bad weather. :( )
(Heck yes!!)
( I think we did this because we're 'old'...and check out my previously purchased awesome winter coat...so cute!)
Anyway, this must have been the longest blog I've written yet. Sorry for that. But I wanted to keep a record of what I've done since I got here and this is it. Seems like a lot, eh? Hope everyone's well, Matt and I will be getting things together until Thailand on November 15th. Peace out! xx
