There is two weeks after pay day that are glorious.
Then there are two weeks before pay day that result in every minute of the day in this expensive country being a complete struggle.
Still, my student repayment bonus came through so I did a Guido fist pump in the air.
"You little beauty" I said in a 12th man, Maxie Walker voice.
So, we had two separate visits from Renee's family occur over the last 3 weeks, and I can tell you, I am over being a tour guide. It was good at the start, but when you are showing people a market you have been to only a few days earlier, it got old pretty quick.
Anyway, went and checked out Portobello Markets which is based in Notting Hill. Its the markets that Hugh Grant walks through during the movie. No biggie. Its full of food and antiques, amongst other things, so it took Luke (Renee's bro) and I approximately 12 minutes before we started looking for a pub. I found one and Luke checked his watch to make sure it was after midday so we didnt become classed as alcoholics.
It was 12:04.
The girls took their sweet time, loading up on clothes and crap until they resembled Julia Roberts having just finished her shopping spree in Pretty Woman.
We showed them Camden also and went to the London Eye to top off the touristy shit.
Then Renee's parent came and it was the same schedule all over again. By the time we got to Portobello markets again, I was in a grumpy mood and had to wait at the bar again for the girls to shop. Its almost like an adult playcentre, this bar. "Lets just lose the boys so we can shop" the girls must say to each other in a secret dialect involving winks and head movements.
Ryan and Jo showed up not long after and I went and had drinks with them. They only had a short stay in London before heading off on their trip through Europe, but it was good to see them enjoying the sights and London lifestyle (namely drinking). I tried my best to convince them to stay on, as they have visas. Good stuff. Hope their trip goes well.
Last weekend I took the Friday off (ripper) and headed off in a hire car with Renee's family. It was pretty sweet, they shouted everything, and when I offered to pay they said "No. no". So I was like 'OK'. We headed to Brighton first. Brighton is fairly cool. Its known as a seaside town but the beach is made of stones instead of sand and there are no waves to speak of. Ever.
We had Fish and Chips on the beach, the fish being a whale fillet, or at least that's how big it was. The chips were shite - not up to my stringent standards.
We walked out on the pier and got stuck into the amusement park which is located at the end of it. After the dodgems, I decided to go on the log flume and the dickheads operating the thing, made me wait at the top of the giant drop until another log turned up alongside, thus completely saturating me from head to toe. I was not impressed and the operators seemed oblivious to the fact that they had unleashed the Perfect Storm on my ass. I was about to call out to Des and Troy to combine their powers, but decided against it.
It is a family park after all.
After Brighton, we headed to Salisbury where we stayed the night. Salisbury was really nice. Small and quaint. The cathedral was baller (Taylor word - I think it means cool). We tried to get inside it but they were holding a small mass for only 1500 invited guests. We had dinner at Wagamama and walked the tiny streets.
After Salisbury we made our way to Stonehenge. The place has been tourist-icised and it cost big bucks to get into it. I went in by myself and took heaps of photos. I think it was fairly cool, I have been told it is disappointing but I didnt think so. I have been to Belfast mind you.
We hooned off to Bath, stopping at Longleat park along the way. Longleat has one of those drive through Safari things, so we drove on through and saw Giraffes, Lions and Rhinos up close and from the comfort of our rent-a-car seats. I wound the window down a little to get a photo of the tigers and everyone freaked.
Bath was cool. Really cool. It used to be part of the Roman Empire and you can still see an Ancient Italian influence in the streets and buildings. We walked through the Roman Baths (ridiculously overpriced) and drove around the circular roundabouts bordered with terrace style houses (hard to explain). It was around here that I discovered how hard it is to give directions whilst driving through England. Every street is either one way or no entry and no street seems to have any precedence. We were driving down this tiny alley and found out it was the main road.
We stayed the night in Bath and drove out to Bristol, which was a shit hole, so we got back in the car and drove on through to Wales. We were keen to have lunch in Newport and followed all the signs to the city centre. Then all the signs started saying we were heading out of the city and back to England. What???!!! We didnt even get to stop.
We visited a small town called Arundel on the way home which is a little less known than Stonehenge but still has some Mysterious stones everywhere. There were a few tourists there that were in the know. I knew about it because of my Lonely Planet guide book (highly recommended).
After a whirlwind trip through Lower England we came back to London and had drinks in a bar overlooking Trafalgar Square and most of central London. Views were outstanding.
Renee's parents left this morning to head back to Oz. It doesn't rest up for me though. I have drinks tonight with some of my old old flatmates from final year uni days that I haven't seen in years.
The next few weekends should be quiet enough. Darren and Nicky arrive near the end of the month for a fleeting visit. Right now, I am trying to plan where to go for the next bank holiday weekend in August. It will only be a one city stop, so it is out of:
Kiev, Ukraine
Krakow, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Any suggestions / alternatives out there?
(See how I phrased that as a question, thus provoking a response)