A Trip Across the Pond : February Half Term

January was hard. I grappled with loneliness, uncertainty about Matthew's arrival, an immense workload teaching, and the extremely wet winter that England faced. It's safe to say that I was counting down the days until February half term. A glorious week off! That wasn't even the best part though. The best part was that the one and only, best friend extraordinaire, Jaclyn Lytle was coming to visit me!!

The last day of term was on Valentine's Day but it was anything but sweet. All of January and February had been particularly difficult on me weather-wise. There was quite a bit of wind and rain (the wettest winter in 250 years!) and my hovercraft over to the Isle of Wight was often cancelled, making getting into work a very expensive and challenging nightmare. Some nights only the car ferry on the other side of the island would be running and it would take me hours and hours to get home. Valentine's Day was of a similar nature with both the hover and catamaran ferry being cancelled. I got special dispensation to leave early because of the weather and made the trek home as fast as I could. At the last minute they ended up running the catamaran ferry and I jumped on, getting quite seasick on the high waves.

When I made it home, I threw all thoughts of school out the window. Matt, Gabel, Alex and myself quickly packed our bags and jumped on a train to London. Or rather we thought it would be one train but because of all the flooding and storms we ended up having to take 4 trains in order to bypass all the stations that were closed down. It was fine though. You can't complain when you're travelling with your bestest friends, some beer, and an impromptu game of Cards Against Humanity on the train. Our plan was to spend the weekend together in London while we waited for Jackie's arrival and Alex happens to have a very kind and generous aunt who lives in the outskirts of London and she was graciously willing to host us.

We were so exhausted by the time we reached Alex's aunt's house that we didn't do much that night. Alex made us all some tea and we relaxed in the library which I fell in love with. I love old books, especially first editions, and there was quite an impressive collection of some of my favourites. Soon enough we were all falling asleep amongst the books and had to call it a night.

Saturday was absolutely beautiful and sunny. We slept in, had an amazing home cooked full English breakfast and then headed out to catch a train into central London. We are all huge fans of the Camden Markets so that's where we ended up. It's the most unique and interesting shopping experience and the food options are unreal. Unleashing Gabel and I in there can be quite dangerous really and sure enough by the end of the day we had matching sunglasses among many other purchases. We all had some Turkish wraps for lunch upon Gabel and Alex's recommendation and we weren't disappointed. Dessert was deep fried Mars bars!

That night we had planned on taking Alex's aunt out for dinner to thank her for hosting us. However she foiled our plans because when we got home she had already made a really tasty lasagna and salad. Our original plans had included travelling back into the heart of London to go to a crazy club in a warehouse in Vauxhall but it ended up being too difficult to organize transportation. In the end we settled for creating our own hilarious pub crawl in Croydon which wasn't too far away. We started off at a normal place and then moved from hilarious pub to hilarious pub, having as many shots and drinks as we could and having funny experiences at each place. We ended the night at a place called Chicken World (I would never eat there sober) and finally got in to bed around 4:30am. For an impromptu night out, the four of us had tons of fun.

The next day - or rather that same day by the time we got in - Matthew and I got up bright and early nursing hangovers, said goodbye to Alex and Gabel and trained to Heathrow Airport to pick up the lovely Jacks! Here's the day by day breakdown of our lovely time together and all our trips:

Sunday - Scheduled nap time (for Jackie to adjust to the time different and for Matthew and I to make up for the previous nights' shenanigans!). We then went to our favourite restaurant, Leelawadee, for some yummy thai food and then the three of us went to the cinema to see The Wolf of Wall Street. That film is simply shocking and unbelievable but really, really good; we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Monday - Matthew went off to his first day of work! I wish he could have had one more week off so that he could have come exploring with Jackie and I but oh well. It's just really poor timing that when I finally got a week off work, he started work! Anyway, Jackie and I headed to Salisbury for the day. We got to experience firsthand all the crazy flooding that has been going on. Southampton has been largely unaffected but on the train we passed through a town called Romsey which is only about 20 minutes outside of Southampton. The entire town basically had a river running through it. You couldn't see the streets. It was really unsettling to see actually and I felt really blessed to be living on the top floor of my apartment complex. Salisbury has a beautiful park in it that I went to with my family last October when they came to visit. I brought Jackie to the park but it had become a lake. The water was up to the top of the benches. Most of Salisbury was still functional though which was good because it's such an old fashioned, quaint British town so I wanted her to get a good feel of it. We had a nice brunch at an adorable pub on the river and then set off exploring. We made our way to the Salisbury Cathedral I mentioned in my last entry so I won't go into too much detail about it. We then purchased tickets for the Stonehenge bus tour and this is where things get funny! I have taken that tour many times before. You get on the bus and it drives through Salisbury and Old Sarum (one of the oldest parts of England where Anglo-Saxons and Romans settled) and then it drops you off right at Stonehenge. It drives past a visitor centre that is under construction and bus operator informed me last time that it had been under construction for a decade because the funding kept changing and the investors could never agree on anything. So I considered myself an expert. I knew all the jokes ahead of time before the bus operator said them. The bus is putting along and it suddenly pulls up to the visitor centre. I couldn't believe that they had actually finished it. Now time was tight and Jackie and I had actually caught the last bus out of Salisbury going to Stonehenge. I didn't really care about the visitors center so I suggested we just stay on the bus and go straight to Stonehenge. She seemed pleased by that and was reassured to travel with someone as experienced as me. Or so we thought…

Everyone else started getting off the bus and I started telling people it wasn't mandatory to get off, you could continue on to Stonehenge. No one listened and they all got off. Jackie and I were the only ones left on the double decker. Jackie said she was so happy to be travelling with a seasoned expert like me. The bus pulled out of the visitor centre and instead of turning left to go to Stonehenge, it turned right to go BACK TO SALISBURY!! We realized this instantly and started panicking. We were on the top of the double decker though and weren't in a position to do much. I assured Jackie over and over again that the bus had always gone to the actual stones the last time I took it. There hadn't even been an announcement or anything saying that we had to get off the bus at the new centre or we would miss Stonehenge. We sat anxiously at the top until it stopped back in Salisbury at which point I went down to the tour operator and begged for help. We had paid 26£ which was supposed to cover our entry to Stonehenge but had really just ended up being an expensive bus ride that I had already taken 3 times. It turns out that there's now "land trains" (what other kind of trains are there?) that bring you from the visitors centre to the stones. We argued with her for awhile and I presented an ultimatum: refund us or drive us back to Stonehenge! I guess I'm persuasive because they ended up driving us back to Stonehenge!! However, she made sure to humiliate us first. She radioed ahead to the visitor centre and told them that two girls who had "somehow managed to not get off the bus" were coming to the visitor centre and that people should "look out for them and help them make it to the Stones". Sure enough when Jackie and I arrived, there were people on the lookout for us, asking if we were "those girls". It didn't help that Jackie and I had a disagreement about which route would be fastest to the land trains and separated to see who would win. We ended up not being able to find each other and were each found by separate members of staff who had to try and get us back together. I think they think we are not well or slow or something. It was hilarious. Well, we managed to get on the last land train to the stones and we saw the magnificent Stonehenge. Unfortunately some of the field around it was flooded so we weren't able to go all the way around them. On the way back, we made sure to be the first people in line for the bus back so we didn't do anything embarrassing again. We made it home in one piece and cooked up a feast to celebrate Matthew's first day at work.

Tuesday - Unfortunately duty called and I desperately needed to do some marking so I had to make the trek to my classroom on the island. It was actually fun because Jackie got to experience what a day in the life is like for me. She came on the hovercraft (of course on that day the ocean was perfectly calm and she didn't get a wild ride). She then got to experience the 1.4 mile uphill trek to the school but it was really nice to be able to show her what I see everyday on my little island. Jackie occupied herself on my computer while I frantically marked away and she printed some displays for me too. So now she is one of two people in my life who have seen my classroom!

Wednesday - Bath! If I could live anywhere I would pick this city so I was excited to show Jackie how beautiful it is. We took the coach bus there and were blessed with a nice, sunny day. Jackie is more fond of wandering in new places rather than seeking out every famous tourist attraction and landmark so we started wandering and immediately came across a beautiful book store that sold old and first edition books, antique maps, and various other little trinkets. It was love at first sight!! I have my eye on an original Tennyson anthology of poems but it costs 175£!! Beyond my budget but maybe one day I can purchase it. I love first edition books from the 19th century because they are crafted so beautifully with colours and designs. In the end I did purchase The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. It wasn't a first edition but fairly close and it only cost 5£. It has a really nice cover and it's one of my favourite books. From there we went to enjoy a nice lunch at Garfunkel's. It's a chain restaurant but the one in Bath is a lot better than the rest. It's located right in the city centre with impeccable views and despite serving pub food, the inside is done up so you'd think you were dining in an exclusive 5 star restaurant. Despite Jackie's aversion to tourist traps, I showed her The Bath Abbey and The Roman Baths because you simply can't come to Bath and not see the Baths. She loved it and we each threw some coins into the Circular Bath and made a wish. The rest of the day was filled with our favourite hobby - shopping! In the Bath Markets I found a place selling large Canada flags and since the Olympics were on, I bought two large Canadian flags. Out in the streets, I found another store selling large map paper and bought some world maps and a map of England. The night ended the usual way - Jackie, Matthew and myself lounging in the living room eating a yummy feast and watching True Detective (if you haven't seen the show, it's sooooo good!)

Thursday - Oxford! I was particularly looking forward to this day trip because it would be the one place I brought Jackie that I had never been to before. It's only two hours away by coach bus - which is how we travelled - and we each had a little list of things we wanted to see/do. Oxford is such a beautiful place; I was really blown away. Our first stop was at a local market we stumbled upon and

Next we did some exploring down the main streets, taking pictures of the sights. For lunch we went to The Eagle and Child which Jackie had really wanted to go to and I'm glad. It's a famous pub that The Inklings used to gather at to hash out ideas and write. The most famous members include C.S. Lewis (Narnia) and Tolkien! Apparently a large part of the Hobbit was created in the pub. So we had a very exciting lunch there and then went to The University of Oxford. I really wanted to see the famous Radcliffe Camera. It was very difficult to find but we eventually managed and got some nice pics. The area around the university is so fun. We found lots of neat local shops, my favourite one being Scriptum. Part of my wedding registry is going to be from that store (don't worry, Matthew has agreed!). After the University we went shopping at the Covered Market, got some snacks and then we found Jackie a beautiful red bracelet that she had been looking for. Lastly we got Jackie all decked out in tank tops and tshirts from the Oxford U clothing store. By the end of the day, I was wishing I had gone to the University of Oxford just so I could live in a fun, pastel coloured house, wear the trendy Oxford U clothing, walk around Radcliffe Camera, and shop in the local markets and quaint boutiques.

Jackie and I came home for our usual routine of dinner and True Detective with Matthew but when Matthew went to bed, Jackie and I got all dressed up for a night of shenanigans. A few bottles of wine, shots of jagger, and 3 boxes of KD later, we climbed into bed at 3:30am.

Friday - Sleepy lazy day! Not too surprising when you think about our night.

Saturday - London shenanigans!! It's truly a good week when I get to go and party in London two weekends in a row. I do believe that I will never ever get sick of London. It's too marvellous a city. Jackie and I got up quite early to make sure we had a full day in London. We checked into our hotel and then I showed her a couple of the mandatory tourist sights (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, The London Eye). She was happy to forgo the rest of them though in order to spend the whole afternoon shopping at The Camden Markets!! We both did some shopping damage there and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for the fun night we had planned. Dinner, the theatre, and a night out on the town! Turns out we were a bit exhausted from the day and got ready slower than anticipated so while we were running to the Underground in our skirts and heels, we made a quick decision to run into a McDonalds to grab a quick bite since a formal dinner was no longer an option. The funny thing is that the same thing happened to Matthew and I last December when we went to the theatre as well. Unfortunately we got the slowest, most uninspired person cashier ever at McDonalds and what we thought was going to be fast food turned out to be food that was going to make ys very late. I even debated running out without our food because I was certain we would miss the show. Eventually we got it and took off at turbo speed to the Underground. We were a funny sight because we both had our hair all done, lots of makeup, heels, skirts, etc and then we pulled out our McDonalds cheeseburgers and ate them in front of everyone. Don't mess with hungry girls! The tube took forever and time was running out. By the time we got up top, it was 7:40 and the show started at 7:45. I knew doors closed a few minutes before so I didn't think we had a hope in hell of making it. Jackie insisted upon us running again so we did and somehow they let us in even at 7:44. I was immensely relieved of course and we took our seats to see the fabulous Mamma Mia at the Novello Theatre. It was a lot of fun! Definitely worth seeing. We had managed to sneak in some bottles of wine for the show and afterwards we headed to a pub to get some pints. Once it got late enough we headed to a club and did a Jackie and Katrina special - dancing the night away!

Sunday - Sad day :( I sent off Jackie to the airport and we had a teary goodbye on the Underground. A week goes by too quickly and it was extra hard because I knew it would be a long gap before I could see her again. I was so sad as I made my way back to Southampton but luckily my darling Matthew consoled me and we spent a lazy day in bed.

So that's how I spent a week off. The next day was back to teaching and back to reality! Here's the pics.

We're proper British drinking our tea :)