Col & Rens UK Trip

Another interesting week. Renee had Friday off and I worked until 1pm. We met up and caught a train to Leeds arriving around 4pm. It arrived within a few minutes of Groms train arriving in Leeds so we were easily able to meet up with the bald fella. We went for a short walk and caught up with Fenners who was our transportation for the evening. He drove to close to the concert and we parked and walked the remainder of the way. Previously i mentioned we had Golden Circle tickets which turned out to be a really good thing. We arrived shortly after 6pm which was only just over 2 hours until Robbie was on stage. We went into the Golden Circle area was a couple of meters from the stage. We turned around and there was everybody else. There were a few thousand Golden Circle tickets and then the remainder of the 90,000 tickets were just general admission. Im guessing there were already about 70000 people in there as the place was absolutely packed then. Lucky we had them tickets or we would have been right at the very back, unable to really see anything. Instead we just walked right up to the front. Excellent.. This concert was a lot darker than in Dublin so really didn't take too many photos. One is below.


After the concert we headed back to Barnsley and stayed there the night. Early the next morning we caught a train to York. This train we didn't have booked and no one on the train checked for tickets so we get to York for free. A saving of around £16 ($40). I find it strange you can buy tickets on the train. Especially when they dont always check them.. Oh well.. Worked out well for us.

We arrived in York early morning and walked and found our hostel. From there we continued walked and went to York Minister. We went in and had a look around there and also climbed all 275 stairs to the top. Our legs weren't feeling the best from the concert the night before so by the time we got down it felt like our legs were made of jelly. Nothing an Ice Cream couldn't fix... A few photos below. Firstly York Minister from the Outside. Next 3 from inside, and lastly, a view from the top.


After York Minister we went for a walk and found the Treasurers House which Renee had seen in a brochure. It was Heritage Day or something similar which allowed free entry for that one day of the year. It was a house which was built in the 17th century and made to look as it would have back then. Normally £5 each but it being free was good. It was interesting, but not hand over money interesting. After that we grabbed some supermarket sandwiches for lunch and ate in the park. We continued walking and walked back to our hostel and checked in. This weekend in York was the York House Races so pretty much everywhere was booked out so we stayed in a cheap youth hostel. The room had a sink and bunks. Nice...

After checking in we went for a walk to Clifford Tower had a look around there. We continued walking along a river and then up and along the wall past York Minister, and down to St Marys Abbey which was an old ruin. Strangely as we went to walk up the stairs to the wall we saw a guy wearing a Geelong Football Team shirt. We had a chuckle to ourselves, but didn't say anything. After the Abbey it was getting towards tea time so we started to walk back to our hostel looking at the restaurants along the way. Just around the corner from our hostel was a nice looking Indian place. We decided to eat there which turned out to be a really good decision. The food was really tasty, and we saw the biggest Naan bread we have ever seen it. It came out not on a plate, but hanging vertically from a hook. The Naan we had was about 30cm but the family size looked about 50-60cm long. It was huge. We had a tasty meal and then headed back to our hostel. We had a fairly early night... Photos below. 1st - Treasurers House. 2nd - Hostel room. 3rd - Clifford Tower. 4th - A view along the wall. 5th - St Marys Abbey.


Sunday morning we got up and went walking around York. We had breakfast at a little cafe just around the corner which was nice. What was even more surprising was the breakfast didn't come with baked beans! For some reason baked beans are big here. KFC doesn't have potato and gravy... it has baked beans. Anyway... We walked a couple of kilometres out to where Graeme was playing his One Day Cup final. Earlier in the week they had won the League title which was the most important one. They batted to start with and ended up making 253 off their 50 overs. They were all out, which means Grom got a bat... well kinda. He faced two balls. The first one he missed, the second one he missed, and it hit the stumps. There is a photo of it below. Notice him looking forward, and ball already past him just about to hit the wickets.

Barnsley then bowled, and they picked up a wicket on the second ball of the match. A few overs later Grom bowled a guy. There are 2 photos of that below. The first photo of him bowling you can see the ball after hitting the stumps, the second shows the batsmen walking off and the celebrations beginning. We had a train to catch so we left when they were 5 out for 126 with 18 overs to go. We heard later that no more wickets were obtained and they lost the match. Bugger.


We arrived back in Manchester and then caught a bus from the city to where we live. Bus normally takes about 30 minutes but this was a particularly interesting bus ride. The bus ride itself reminded me of a serenaded Gondolla ride in Venice. Except that instead of the serenade being sung by an actual singer, on our bus it was the drunk 70 year old Irish guy with his renditions of Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, and hits by Elvis. He really got into it too, using his water bottle as a microphone and playing the seat in front of him like the drums. Im also pretty sure when we were on the Gondolla in Venice that we didn't go past a fire in the trees on the side of the road. Fairly big fire too. Also dont remember at any stage the Gondolla having to slow down because some drunk teenagers were standing in the middle of the road mooning the bus. Maybe i just wasn't paying attention. Apart from these obvious differences, the similarities between our bus ride and a gondolla ride in Venice were remarkable....

You would think with a long weekend and having Monday off the week would go quickly. Wrong. For some reason it was one of the slowest weeks that just dragged on. Public transport is more annoying than ever. Anyway.. Less than a month to go.

The week of work finished and the Friday night we both got out to the Airport where Renees parents and brother were staying the night before flying to the USA in the early hours of Saturday morning. We had a nice tea before returning to our house for the night.

I got up the next morning really early as i had to catch a bus to the mail delivery centre to collect a registered mail envelope that had been sent to us during the week. It was our Robbie Williams tickets for Leeds. Strangely, I thought I had bought seated tickets but in the end they were Golden Circle tickets. Not a bad mistake to make. Eventually got back to the house and got ready and we caught a 9am train to Chester. It took a couple of hours to get there but we arrived. Yay

We walked around a little and i pulled the camera out to take a photo and it said 'No Memory Card'. Crap. I had copied the photos from Skipton off it the night before and didn't put it back in the camera, and was rushed before the train and we didn't check. We considered buying a cheap card for it for Chester photos, but i remembered in my mobile phone there was a 32mb MMC card. It worked in the camera so we managed to get a few photos.

When we arrived in Chester the weather was horrible. The wind was strong, as our inside out umbrella suggested. It cleared up fairly quickly and didn't have any rain after the first 15 minutes of arriving. We were fairly lucky in that respect. We spent the day in Chester and walked around the wall, checked out the shops, etc. Chester was a nice little place.

The first photo is of the famous clock. Second from the bridge below the clock looking down the street. Third outside the Chester Cathedral and lastly, a pretty cool looking building we found.

Saturday night was a quiet night. Sunday we went into town and did some shopping but we didn't buy much. Weekend over, and ready for another exciting week of work.

Tuesday was Renees birthday and i got out of work early which worked out well, and we went out for tea. Had a nice tea and then just returned home. We aren't very exciting people.

Its Thursday night as I write this. Tomorrow, Friday 8th September is the Robbie Williams in Leeds concert. We are catching a train to Leeds Friday afternoon and meeting Grom, and Fenners there. Im not exactly sure what a Fenners is but i hear he isn't very tall. We will go to the concert, and then afterwards Fenners will drive us all back to Barnsley for the night. We will get up early in the morning and head to York. We will be staying in York the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, Grom has the Yorkshire One Day Cup Final in York so we will go and watch that. Later that night we will return to Manchester.

Barnsley won a One Day Cup earlier this season, and after a penalty was overturned on appeal tonight, they were declared the league champions. Before tonight they were on top with one game to go, only having to win to secure the championship, but with some penalty points taken off them earlier in the season overturned, the result of the Saturday game no longer matters. They finish on top of the ladder. If they win on Sunday they win all 3 cups and do a clean sweep. Not a bad effort if it all works out to plan.

The weekend after that we are off the Stratford Upon Avon for the weekend. Weekend after that we will have a day in Blackpool. The weekend after that really isn't a weekend. We will both be unemployed again, and getting ready to travel. Exciting.

On a side note, Robbie Williams is doing 2 concerts in Leeds. The first being on the Friday which we are seeing. The Saturday concert is being broadcast live on TV here in the UK and it will be shown on TV in Australia on September 17th at 9pm on Channel 10.

The weekend just gone we left from work on the Friday night and caught a train straight to Skipton and caught up with Renees parents and younger brother. They were there for 2 weeks and had rented a cottage. The cottage was really nice and had a big japanese style garden out the back. Photos are below.


The Friday night we went out to local pubs and night club and caught up with Renees old friends from Skipton, and also met up with Toni and Nathan who were in town. Its amazing a place that is so small in size manages to have so many pubs.

The next morning we were up and went for a drive and walk along the river at Bolton Abbey. It was an old ruins and was really nice. There was a little river that ran along beside it and there were stepping stones you could cross the river on. Strangely beside the river were a bunch of cows just sun baking. I know its hard to believe. There was actually sun.


The Saturday afternoon was pretty lazy. We relaxed and waited until our Roast Lamb was cooked. First home cooked roast we have had in a long time. Graeme was coming to Skipton to meet up with us and stay the night so we picked him up from the train station. I drove to the train station which was the first time i have driven in the last 6 months. Good to get behind the wheel after using public transport for so long. He got back to the cottage and we all stayed up for a while but didn't get up to much.

Next morning we were spoilt and got bacon and eggs for breakfast. Later we went for a drive and then walked about 5km along the river. We were going to walk back to the car but Bolton Abbey was reasonably close so Grom, Renee and I continued on so Graeme could see it and Renees parents turned around and got the car and drove and picked us up. We got back to the cottage and had a little rest before heading to Skipton Castle. Although Renee had lived in Skipton for 6 months previously, she had never got around to going to the castle. It was only Renee, Renees mum, Grom and I who went to the castle. It was a smallish castle but pretty cool.


That night for tea we had a barbecue with Renees family who live in Skipton, and Toni and Nathan. We took Graeme back to the train station after tea and he caught his way home.

Monday was a bank holiday so that worked out really well. We headed out to Settle which was where Renees mothers parents got married and lived. It was a nice little town not far out of Skipton. We came back and Renee, Renees Mother and I went shopping up the main street. 3 minutes later after searching extensively through all the shops we were done.

Later that night we got a train back to Manchester and were ready for another exciting week of work.