October and November 2010

After Portugal life was a bit boring for a while. Shapeshifter were playing on the 29th of October though so I got to see my brother and the boys did a fantastic gig, as usual. They put us on the door plus four friends, so we felt like real celebrities getting the little backstage pass bands and getting to go to the special bar afterwards.
One of the nurses I work with was having a halloween party the next night. Our good friends Anne and Matt from New Zealand had come to the UK at the beginning of October and had gone straight on a Top Deck tour of Europe, but this was now finished so we dragged them to the party with us, all the way in Hendon, North London! We looked spectacular.

It was very interesting taking the public transport across London - some people had gone all out with their outfits. There were skeletons with massive polystyrene skulls, witches, people with gore all over them - if you didn't know it was halloween it probably would have been a bit scary. Rob's favourite was the line of Storm-troopers taking the escalator at Waterloo. At the party there were some ghosts, a mummy, a skeleton, and lots of blood and gore when Rob tried to operate his bleeding knife wound from where he'd been stabbed in the back...

The following week I didn't have much work on so did the touristy thing and went with Anne and Matt to Windsor Castle to have a look around. It is lovely, probably the best royal castle in my opinion.

It was a great time to go, as there were hardly any tourists. We got the tour guide to ourselves and she was very informative. And the view from the castle grounds of the trees in all their glory of Autumn was beautiful.

Our tour guide told us all about the Knights of the Order of the Garter - of which Sir Edmund Hilary was one. Every Knight gets their own shield, which are all on display inside the castle. While they are alive they also get a throne in St George's Church. Apparently Sir Ed had a Kiwi atop his throne. Also in St George's is the grave of King Henry the VIII. Really, really interesting place!

Anne and Matt escaped London again, this time on a camping trip around the UK. I went on yet another girly theatre night to Flashdance on the 4th November. It was Guy Fawkes on the 5th, but I had the dreaded lurgy and felt too ill to venture out. We actually saw a great display from our flatmate, Simon's, window, so all was not lost!

On the 6th, it was the long awaited day where we were to go to Twickenham to see the mighty All Blacks kick England's butt. We had paid crazy amounts months before to secure the tickets, and were very excited. Preparations took place to ensure we looked the part.

The crowds were, as expected, massive, and the police horses were there to keep order (my favourite part of London perhaps? Every time I see a mounted policeperson I moon over the horse).

Ritchie and the boys did a great job.

On the way home Simon initiated a lovely piece of international relations, and I was so impressed with the Englishman being so stereotypically dressed, I had to take a photo.

We got to see some good fireworks the weekend after the rugby to make up for our dismal effort on Guy Fawkes night. These followed the Lord Mayor of London's Parade.

The weekend of the 20th of November we went to meet Matt and Anne on their camping extravaganza in the Lakes District. By this time the winter which was to be later known as the coldest in many many decades was starting to make its icy grip felt. But it was still incredibly beautiful. We took the train to Windemere and Matt and Anne picked us up in their lovely orange Spacewagon. Before we left the station we had to try some Kendal Mint cake - surprisingly nice. For those kiwis out there it tastes like the top of an Arnotts mint slice biscuit. We drove around Lake Windermere and had to stop to take some photos.

We drove up to Grasmere and found the Wordsworth Graves. This is where William Wordsworth used to like to hang out and write poems about daffodils. It is a really beautiful spot but I imagine even more gorgeous when the daffodils are out.
We managed to find a wonderful smelling Gingerbread shop, very old shop, and yummy gingerbread, so chomped on our gingerbread while we were taking in the peaceful place.

One of our priorities (well, especially the boys), was to find somewhere to watch the All Blacks vs Ireland game. This was not going to be easy, we realised. We had a look around Keswick, but the only pub with a TV was playing the FOOTBALL, of course. We decided to try and find somewhere on the way back to our campsite. On the way we took in some more breath-taking scenery.

Finally we managed to find a pub where the owner wasn't bothered about the football (in fact, he didn't have cable so he couldn't have played it if he wanted to). The pub had a mysterious boot hanging from the rafters, with a long story about how it got there, that I have now forgotten.

We had a yummy meal of Cumberland bangers and mash, and Matt bantered with the Irish woman at the next table while the rugby was on, all in all a very satisfactory conclusion. When we got to the campsite our bunkhouse was very serviceable, and when we went over to the camp pub we got sticky date pudding and rounded the evening off nicely.

The next day was freezing. We went and had a look round Bowness, then decided to go on a cruise on Lake Windemere to Lakeside, where we could visit the aquarium. We questioned our sanity in deciding to go on a boat in that weather, but it was actually OK, and very beautiful.

The aquarium was actually pretty cool. There is a tunnel like at Kelly Tarltons where the fish swim above you.

Then there are also otters, pirhanas, big turtles, a huge eel that is begging to be petted, little marmoset monkeys - very cute! And lots of other stuff. We caught the boat back to Bowness and went and got yet another substantial pub meal before we caught the train home and Matt and Anne continued their camping adventure.

The last event in November was Jimmy Carr in Brixton, very funny guy but very crude! Brixton wasn't as dodgy as I expected but probably because it was early and a Sunday night... We had the first few flakes of snow fall that night.