Col & Rens UK Trip

This weekend was the first weekend in a long time where we didn't travel and have to be at certain places early in the morning. During the week we had decided that over the weekend we would go see Superman Returns. In Manchester Superman Returns 3D was playing in Imax so we thought that would be something different and interesting to see. It was just the normal movie with about 20 minutes of it in 3D. It was actually pretty cool.

The Saturday morning we enjoyed not having to get up or be at a bus or train station early in the morning to travel. We pretty much wasted the first half of the day up until we went in to see the Grease Musical in Manchester with people from Renees work. The musical was at 5pm and it was ok. Nothing Special. I think Renee enjoyed it more than i did but still she didn't think it was anything special. After the show we all went to Rusholme which is a part of Manchester which has a lot of Indian food. They have a stretch called the Curry Mile. Curry because it has lots of curry places, and mile because it goes on for roughly a mile. Kinda makes sense. Anyway... We had tea there and that was really nice. We actually got a lift home which was the first journey we have both had in a car since about the first time since we arrived in the UK. What on bus would have taken about 2 hours, took about 20 minutes. I miss my car.

Sunday was a fairly cruisey day. We went shopping to the local shopping complex and that was about it. Probably the most exciting thing to happen this weekend was the fact we booked a trip to France. As i write this its Tuesday night and Friday is my last day of week for Barclays Bank. After that i am unemployed and Renee has 2 weeks off from work. During this 2 weeks we are going to go to Paris for 3 nights, then fly to Nice for 3 nights. In Nice will be Renees parents so it will be really good to not only see them, but see them in Nice.

We booked a bus from Manchester to London (4 1/2 hours) and then a bus that runs through the night from London to Paris (10 hours). If you curious about how the bus crosses the water between London and Paris it does it by hovering. By hovering i mean it drives onto a ferry, sits there until it docks in Paris, and then disembarks. Yep... Hovering.

That was our weekend pretty much. We are both excited about the pending trip to France so hopefully this week should go pretty quickly.

I got bored and felt the need to add a few photos. Here are a few more of Robbie Williams concert in Dublin.

Saturday morning we took the train to London from the station about 500m from where we live. Much quicker than the bus and more comfortable. We arrived about 12:30pm in London and quickly caught the tube and went to The Royal Albert Hall to meet my parents. There was a tour at 1:30pm we wanted to see and we just managed to get there in time. The tour was fairly interesting. We now want to see a performance there before we leave, even if it is something dodgy and cheap. The tour lasted about an hour and we saw the auditorium, the Queens seating and resting area, and a few other little things.

After that we went to the London Eye and picked up our prebought tickets. We got on the Eye and that was enjoyable. We all enjoyed that and it gave good views of London and its surrounding areas. Yay

After the Eye, we caught the tube to Picaddilly where we had a quick McDonalds tea before seeing Guys and Dolls. When we bought the tickets it was supposed to have Patrick Swayze in it but he was sick for rehearsals. Have i mentioned this already?? Who Cares. Play was still good and then we went back to my parents hotel before saying goodbye. They hotel they stayed at was a little better than our cheap piece of crap. I could lie in bed and have by head hitting the bed head and my fest resting on the wall. Interesting. I guess you get what you pay for..

Anyway.. A few photos.

Below are a few of the photos from Edinburgh. The first few photos below are of Edinburgh Castle. The first is a view of the back of the castle from our Sightseeing bus. Second is the entrance. Third is a view of the city through the cannon hole in the wall. Forth is a view back from the castle looking at where they are setting up for the Edinburgh Tattoo.


The views from the castle where pretty spectacular. The first two photos show parts of the castle wall or buildings with the view behind them. Third is just a basic photo of the view. Forth is a photo of Renee and Nicole.



This set of photos is pretty much just all the other stuff. First 2 photos are along the Royal Mile. The third photo is just of a roundabout with a statue in the middle and the castle in the background. The last photo of a Bobby. The story is his master died when he was 2 years old and he sat at the owners grave stone until the bobby himself died of old age.

Once again, it has been yonks since i last updated this thing. Today is Friday 14th July and i will briefly go over what has happened so far in July for us.

30th June was a Friday night and once we finished work we both met up and caught a train to Barnsley. My parents had returned from there Britain tour and were in Barnsley with Graeme so the whole purpose of the trip was to catch up with family. We arrived about 8pm and Graeme had cooked tea for us all.

The Saturday was England vs Portugal so that was interesting. We walked up to the cricket oval and every house you passed you could either see them watching the game, or hear them cheering. We watched the penalties from Groms home when we returned and when England lost, dead silence. Its amazing the excuses they come up with over hear. Every loss either its someones fault or something didn't go there way. Its never we weren't good enough and we lost.

We went out Saturday night and had a Chinese buffet. It was ok, but nothing special. Sunday we left in the morning and went to Meadowhall, which is a little city a few trainstops away that has connected to the train station, the cities main shopping mall. Its actually pretty huge so its interesting to walk around. After that we went to Sheffield for a bit but there wasn't that much there. Thats when Renee and I continued to Manchester on our way home while Mum, Dad and Grom returned to Barnsley.

Weekend over, and back to another exciting week of work. Renee found out that her work has a 2 week shutdown for the first 2 weeks of August. I enquired about getting the holidays off but as it was kinda late and people had already arranged it off, i couldn't get it. In the end we decided it would probably be best if i left as if we dont travel while we are here, it really defeats the purpose of being here. I told them i was going to leave and that afternoon they said i could have the holidays if i wanted. At that point we didn't know if Renee had a job to come back to after the shutdown so i said we would think about it. If we both didn't have jobs here, we were thinking of moving to Oxford or somewhere around that region. In the end it looks like Renee has her job so we will be staying in Manchester. After thinking about it i told work what was happening and that i was still going to leave. Its not a great job and hopefully i will be able to pick up something a little better. When we first arrived here we were so in need of jobs i had worked a full week at this place before even knowing how much i got paid. Funny... Well funny to me.

The Friday night we left straight from work again and went to the train station. This time we were going to Edinburgh. We eventually arrived up there about 9pm and caught up with Nicole. Renee was excited to see a good friend over here. The Saturday we went to Edinburgh Castle and walked along the Royal Mile. Other than walking, we didn't do a lot else on the Saturday. We had tea at a nice Mexican photos and there should be a few interesting photos at some point. We didn't have our camera with us so Nicole has those photos. We asked someone to take our photo so they brought over some Sombreros for us to wear. Interesting....

The Sunday we got on a sightseeing bus which was good. Showed us more of Edinburgh but was also informative so we knew what we were looking at. We saw Elephant House Cafe were JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter while sipping her coffee. We also saw where Graham Alexander Bell lived. We went into an old style home on the royal mile which was done up exactly how it would have been back in the olden days. Sunday afternoon we caught a train back to Manchester and eventually got home at about 11pm. More tired on the Monday morning than when we left on the Friday afternoon, we went to work.

As i said at the beginning, its now Friday night here. Tomorrow morning we catch a train to London to see my parents again. We are going to go on the London Eye and also have tickets to the stage show Guys and Dolls. When we bought the tickets to the show Patrick Swayze was supposed to be the lead actor in it. It would have been exactly 1 week since he took over the role. Due to a stomach virus he couldnt do rehearsals so his debut has been delayed 2 weeks, leaving us with someone else. For me its not a bad thing, but i think it disappoints Renee and my mum a bit. Oh well.. Such is Life.

I will put photos of Edinburgh on later when i have more time and actually have some energy.