livin it up...

so, sometimes it sounds like we are really livin it up...

you know, lots of holidays over the summer: america, sweden, road trips (not to mention fred's various excursion around the world 'in the name of science). and when we aren't doing that - then we are in the park playing games, going to the river, exploring london, going out to dinner, seeing movies, playing rock band....

ok. or so it seems! sometimes it feels like that - you know, every time i update the blog it is to report the recent excitement of our lives. not the cleaning, doing laundry, going to work, reading, brushing your teeth, trying to get an early night to bed bit...

today i was on the bus, traveling in/out of london, for close to five hours. five hours! up at 6am, in the dark, in the cold... on my bike cycling to the bus station. i thought i was going to get my free breakfast (that they do between 6-7am) but nooooo... it appears they aren't doing that anymore. so, the only slight joy/reward of getting up so early has been snatched away from me.

it's not so bad really. i went to class, it was in a really nice building. my lecture was really good actually - i left feeling quite inspired and motivated about my potential work as as political philosopher! (haha, i know, right, slightly psycho). i was actually expecting it to be pretty dull... 'methods of political theory' - methods courses normally aren't all that awe-inspiring. but i loved it, and it was well worth the trip into london.

i also spent about five hours reading Rawls.... and his theory of justice. yes, i will update you on my intellectual developments on that area at another time. but i've got to make it through 130 pages by him for monday (plus 6 other chapters in two other books - and that's just for that one class)! but i actually made it through 80 pages, which as sad as that sounds, i was actually pretty impressed with.

anyway. all this to say - our lives are not really as much fun as they might look at times...

but with that said. here are some photos of what we have been up to the last few days!

Freddy opening a gift.

'Iron Gym' - seriously, that is what he wanted.

Watch out Michael - you've got some competition!

Played rock band at a friend's house Sunday night. We took the game over there so our neighbors wouldn't come tell us off for it being too loud!

Thorpe Park!

I went to an amusement park with some of the girls from work. It was wild and there were such great rides and we had loads of fun!

(p.s. okay, i guess our lives aren't too bad after all).

happy birthday to freddy!

Freddy turns 25 today!

This is what he looked like this morning when he got some ice cream in bed.

Last night we went to watch the dogs race. Fred loves it, and it's pretty hilarious. Basically we ate cheap food (1p!), drank cheap beer, and betted a maximum of 2 pounds on a race. Fred spent a total of 20 pounds and won back 8.40 - so not too bad!

Placing bets with Andy.

The dogs were too quick to get on camera.

Today we are relaxing at home... and then going to a friends house to play some rock band tonight. Freddy is off to Berlin in the morning and I am off to my first class at LSE.

Ilfracombe

After the excitement of Stonehenge we headed for the car to try to figure out where to head off to. Luckily we had a computer so we had a look online to try to find a bed and breakfast that looked decent and had a vacancy. After a bit of calling around we found a place called the Collingdale Hotel in a town by the beach called Ilfracombe. That was about all we knew... it was about 2 hours away and was by the ocean. So, we headed off in search of it.

We eventually found the place... after a few close calls along the way. Let's just say that we had to wash some blue paint off the windshield from where we came a little too close to a blue fence. In Fred's defense: English roads are very, very narrow.

The view out our bedroom window.

Relaxing in the room before heading out to explore.

The Collingdale Hotel where we stayed.

Beautiful views around town...

Walking along the water, people were really nice and friendly and kept asking if we wanted them to take our photo (no, not because we looked like tourists but because we kept playing with the camera).

'Imshallah' boat.

Sign under clock reads: 'IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD'

I liked that.

The town centre where we ate some lovely fish.

Sunset over the water.

It was very windy.

Stonehenge Video

Was really windy so you can't really hear what we are saying!

Stonehenge

Day One: We rented our car in the morning and packed up to head off into the great English country. We didn't really know where we were going to end up or stay... but we thought we would sort that out along the way. We typed the postcode of Stonehenge into our TomTom navigation device and headed off...

It was pretty strange. You could see stonehenge from the road, just sitting up there. It seemed a little surreal.

We picked up some little audio-guide things and started listening to all the interesting bits of information while walking around and taking in the view.

Road Trip!!

Tomorrow Freddy and I are heading off on a road trip! We are picking up our car in the morning and then heading off until Saturday to explore England. We don't know what we are going to do yet - Stonehenge is on the list and so is the west coast around Devon and Cornwall. But, we are just going to set out with the open road in front of us and a SatNav (to avoid arguments over directions and maps)...

This is in honour of Freddy's 25th birthday. It's a bit early because it's going to be busy around his birthday. (Roller disco is planned for the night of October 4th though!) Many thanks to both sets of parents that have helped contribute to this gift for Freddy. He's very excited. We are both really looking forward to having a few days off together without any work or things to do. Also, it's great to get the chance to explore England a little bit - because we haven't seen very much of the country yet!

Wish us luck!

VW Golf - the car variety we will be having

Stonehenge

Cornwall

Devon

St Giles Fair!

The St Giles Fair has been in town the last couple of days, and last night the girls from work and I went to try out some rides. We had planned to only go on two rides, so that we didn't spend too much money, but we ended up going on six. They were way too fun to resist and everyone was so excited that we just couldn't stop! It was so much fun that we are planning a trip to an amusement park for the new future!

Wish you were here!

London calling

An unexpected but lovely visit! It seemed totally surreal that David and Mike were going to be in London today - I half expected for it to not work out for some reason. We went old school and planned to meet at 1pm at Piccadily Circus. They were with out cell phones so we just had to hope they would show up and that we would be there at the same time. Luckily it worked out great and we found them. We took in lots of sights: big ben, parliament, westminster abbey, convent garden, a pub lunch, and even the elusive lse. haha. It was so great to see them and we had loads of fun. So, thanks Stephanie for letting Michael head off to France...

In front of Big Ben.

Westminster cathedral.

Parliament.

Checkin out the map.

New favourite coffee shop in Covent Garden that was recommended to us by a homeless man.

On the tube heading towards the airport.

Thanks guys for taking the time to see us!