Jensie Shore

Jennie continued her international binge by spending the day in Italy with the cast of Jersey Shore.

This is the scene right before chaos ensued.  Snooky made fun of Jen for overdressing.  

Jen unleashed a can of Italian whoop ass on the lot of them.

As a souvenir from her trip Jen is sending Fletch a couple of Snooky's teeth.

Depardieu ate my baguette

Jennie worked in Paris today.  She is an astute traveler so she knew to carry a baguette to get into the country.

She ran into Gerard Depardieu.  They had a nice meeting until he ate Jen's baguette in one bite.

Jen wrapped up the day by calling Fletch to teach him French swear words (merde, putain, foutre, Casse-toi! ).

Espana en un día

We had a busy day for a Monday.  Went to Spain for lunch.  Jennie bought a little hat and a shawl made from alpaca.  We ran into Javier Bardem.  He got a little put out when we made him pick up the tab.  

We got back to the UK in time to see the rain.

(Screw you, Fletch)

Saturday - A Riveting Minute by Minute Update

Fletch is going to hate this post.  I'm sorry, Fletch, but this is all we've got.  We're in England, it rains, it's cold, everything is old, we drink pints of beer at the pub - that's it.  To make it worse, this post is almost a rehash of yesterday's post since we basically just relaxed all weekend.  Just when you thought this blog couldn't get any more monotonous - we post this!!

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I thought we ought to check out the coast.  This is the North Sea as seen from Cromer.  It was cold, rainy and windy so we didn't stay long.

We got in the car and took a little ride through all the twisty narrow streets of the little coastal towns.  There were times when the streets were so narrow we would have had to drive in reverse if we met an oncoming car.  Then we came upon the Cliff Top Cafe in Overstrand.

This was our view.

 This is the muffin Bill ordered with our tea.  It tasted like a home made devil dog.

It wasn't long before we were back at the hotel...and we didn't leave (until Sunday when we were forced to check out. )

We had lunch at the pub....

We lit a fire in the back room and settled in with our books.  We read....

and read some more....and played scrabble.....

Until it was time for dinner.  This is the nice man who cooked our food.  He's all set up right in the dining room and we had the table nearest him so he chatted with us quite a bit.  What an exhausting day.  It was such a pleasure to just go upstairs with a cup of tea and climb into the very comfy bed.  We so rarely stay somewhere and actually STAY there.  We either need to plan more of these weekends  or hire someone to come to our house and cook for us over an open flame in our living room.

Country Living

We are finally at our Gunton weekend - - this was the trip we had to postpone last January when the UK got it's "big" snow storm.  By this weekend my expectations were pretty high and I'm very happy to say that I was not disappointed.

We arrived Friday night and were shown into our room with fabric wall and a view of the deer park.  We brought our wellies for a nice long country walk and were told not to go directly into the park because the game keeper was hunting.  We had to keep to the perimeter path.  This was on Saturday and it was rainy and windy so we weren't out that long anyway but we did see some of the residents.  This is not a place for vegetarians since your neighbors are on the dinner menu.

This is the fireplace in the dinning room where they cook the meat.  

Breakfast was delicious and we lingered over the newspapers first in the breakfast room...

And then in the public sitting room off the bar for quite a long time Saturday morning.   (There are two more room just for inn guests.) My vision of Gunton had been to just sit and read books all day in front of the fire but I did have a brief moment of anxiety that we really ought to see something of the area since we drove all the way out here so we did do a drive in the rain to the coast.  But it didn't take long to realize that the fires of Gunton were calling our names.   We may never leave again.

Cambridge

We hit the road Friday morning for Cambridge.  We've been to Oxford multiple times over the years but this is the first  time we've ever been to Cambridge.  After spending a few hours there it definitely left me wanting more.  First stop, was lunch at The Eagle.  The outside was a little plain but the inside was so warm and full of different rooms of interesting pictures, benches with plaid seats, dark wood tables.  I could have sat there for hours listening to the people around us.  THis seemed like a place where the locals ate lunch.  There was a table of women near us that I think may have been a bookclub.  I kept trying to hear a book title so I could chime in with an opinion but they never actually talked about a book (which only made me more certain that it was, in fact, a bookclub meeting...)

 Waterstones are always around but in places like Cambridge there are real bookshops with books that have had many lives with many readers.  I found some beautiful leather bound copies of A Christmas Carol and wanted to buy them all.  

I love these Tudor buildings - they are still beautiful even though they house a Cafe Nero and other modern shops.  (There are Starbucks here but the two ubiquitous chains are Cafe Nero and Costa Coffee).  The university buildings were amazing but even more interesting was this tree with branches that almost lay on the ground - those are still connected to the tree. The little spots of color underneath are hundreds of crocuses (croci?  Yes, both are correct, just googled it)

Many of the streets are closed to cars but we were almost run over multiple times by speeding cyclists.  Bikes are everywhere, locked to every inch of fence.  That's Bill on the left in his Brit jacket and cap.

 More gorgeous buildings....

We need to go back in good weather and spend some time on the river.  Both Oxford and Cambridge (collectively known as Oxbridge) are known for punting on the river so we've got that on our must-do list for the future....

4 Years Ago Today

Whenever we've had a dull work day with no photos and no stories (Bill's commute home was 4 hours!! But that doesn't really make a good blog post) I tend to go back to the archives.  These pictures are pre-blog so hopefully "new to you".   And I actually remember this day very well.  

Our neighbor, Viv, was still at the age when she wanted to hang out with Bill.  She could take me or leave me but she adored Bill.  So she came over that day and Bill set her up with an easel and paints to join him in his artsy afternoon.   (4 years later Viv is a real teenager - no more braids and barely gives either of us the time of day but I suppose that's how it should be...)

Our evening was spent babysitting!!!  Wyatte was hairless and hungry but Grampa Bill doesn't seem to know where his mouth is...

This was back when Bill had that soul patch....so glad those days are over!  (sorry, Bill)

 This is still one of my favorite pictures ever  so I've probably posted it before but I think I'm entitled to act like a proud granny every now and then.

 It turns out that 4 years ago I had very full bangs.    Wyatte still looks at me like that...like he's thinking I might be one sandwich short of a picnic.  Meanwhile, Monkey and I are forging an everlasting bond.  

Tomorrow we will be back to our regularly scheduled blog...we're headed to Norwich to stay here:  http://www.theguntonarms.co.uk

Robbery at the Vatican

My campaign to become the next Pope was denied today when they named some Argentinean dude.  I was counting my papal chickens before they were born-again and bought myself this sweet hat.  The Cardinals must have penalized me for being a RedSox fan (get it?  Cardinals are a baseball team .... wasn't that a fun pun?)
Anyway, I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of this stupid hat.  I barely fit in the door with this thing and it weighs 50 pounds.  Pope's have to have thick neck muscles.

Random Edinburgh

More from my Edinburgh weekend.  Obligatory castle photo and snow falling on Dean Village.  It was blizzardy when I left on Sunday and it looked amazing but I was in a very early cab to the train and didn't get a chance to take any pictures.

I saw this woman on the Britannia tour and had to take a picture for my mother - - does this remind you of anyone???  

 Nothing makes me happier than a good used bookshop.  Unfortunately most of them are closed here on Sundays but Armchair Books was open for a browse.

I had a really fabulous time in a hat shop in the Grassmarket.  What do you think of the new blue chapeau? I bought  two others that will have to make blog appearances soon. The woman in the shop made most of the hats herself and had a picture of Charles buying one of her hats for Camilla right there in the shop.  I shop where Camilla shops!  We share haberdashers!!!

Rule Britannia

Andrea had a prior obligation on Sunday so I was on my own for the day.  I decided to start it at The Royal Yacht Britannia.  To get there, I needed to take the 22 bus from the city center to Leith.  I was all excited to ride on the upper level.  Unfortunately I got on going in the wrong direction.  Maybe that was why the bus was empty.

 Suddenly I was out of town and looking at snowy mountains when I wanted to be headed towards the water. So I had to get off and catch the 22 going in the opposite direction.  It didn't take long before I was back on track.

While I was excited to see the royal yacht, I was also itching to go shopping so there was no dilly dallying on this tour.  Bill (who tends to not like these kind of things) would have been very proud of my Speed Touring.  In general my policy was that if Betty didn't spend time there (laundry room, engine room, etc) then I didn't need to either.

This bell was on the deck where the family would sunbathe, Philip would set up and easel and paint.  There was build in wall bar just inside the door so I suspect this is where everyone met up at gin o'clock.

Silver pantry

They actually rent the formal dining room out now for events.  For some reason that seems particularly sad that a room where the Queen once wined and dined dignitaries is available for weddings and bar mitzvahs like a Holiday Inn.  

They said it takes 3 hours just to set the table the way we  saw it because they have to measure the distance between every piece in the place settings.  Are you picturing Mr. Carson with his ruler?

The original plans for the living room area were dismissed as being too formal and opulent,  Betty wanted a country home feel where she could chill out after a long day of reigning. In the play I went to the other night Betty/Helen says that sailing on the Britannia was the one place she could really relax and get away from everything.  It was sad to learn that she was made to give it up as a cost savings gesture during a time when the Royals were not in favor. (I know - I'm feeling sorry for one of the richest women in the world because she had to give up her yacht.  But to me, she's just my good pal Betty....)

For some reason the sick bay interested me.  It was quite kitted out.  I guess with hundreds of people on board they needed to be prepared for illness and accidents.  

I know I said that I was only going where Betty spent time so before you say anything, I don't think she actually spent time in the crews bunk room (although I did just picture her cleaning up in a game of poker on the top bunk....)  I just was interested in seeing how the crew lived below.  The upstairs bedrooms were actually pretty plan but they were palatial by comparison.

Betty liked to travel with her own car.  I assume this is like what happens when I pack for a trip - if you have the room you start to be bring a lot of stuff you don't really need.

An hour later I was back on the 22 with my take-away cheese and mushroom toastie, ready for my next adventure of the day.