The Blog

   Rah...

Sorry it's taken so long to get around to write this, but I've just not been online much and when I have been blogger has been misbehaving. Things around here have been busy, as Christmas often is, and all of the computers have been in use by everyone else.

It seems that for the next few days there are going to be 13 people eating and showering in this house (with a few more due to pop in for tea), which will be noisy and chaotic and my goodness James has a lot of relatives. It seems to be an extravaganza much like our boxing day party, but lasting a week and all taking place in a space about as big as our lounge room.

England's been a lot of fun, though I'm still kinda bummed that the Paris trip was cancelled. We went to York, which I thought was the coldest place on Earth until we went to Oxford (but my opinion of the uni might be skewed by the fact that I caught a cold and spent those three days miserable and frozen). James says he thinks York was colder with Oxford just "being chilly", but it might be that he remembered to wear gloves and a beanie in Oxford and thus was much warmer.

So, we've been to York for a few days, which was fun. We climbed to the top of the Minster, which is the second biggest gothic cathedral and I thought I was going to die from all of the stairs... but the view was worth it. We walked along the city walls for a bit and went ice skating under the shadow of Clifford's Tower, which was closed by the time we got there. But we also visited a Cold War Bunker, and got to chase some squirrels in the parks and ride a double decker bus! Those things are really rather scary, but you get used to them after a while.

Then we had a few days bumming around in Ribchester, visiting the Roman Ruins and hanging out with some of James' first cousins once removed or something (they're much more particular about family trees here). We haven't made it to the roman museum down the road yet, which is a bit of a pity, but I'm sure we will.

Oh, the best bit about Ribchester is the pubs. So far we've only gone for drinks in one of them, (and the locals tell us it's the best) but the atmosphere is really nice. Warm and friendly and not chaotically crowded like you get in Aussie pubs. They're really cosy, I guess, though the beer is warm and that takes some getting used to.

We went to London to visit the Queen. She's a nice old lady, though for some reason her guards weren't wearing their nice woolly hats when we came to visit (no beefeaters, boo!). Big Ben was big, and so was the Eye (which seemed rather perilously perched on the edge of the river, but I'm reasonably sure that the engineers balanced it correctly.

We went to Greenwich and visited the museum there, and were the last ones out as we stayed until after sunset and got to see them switch the green laser on (those things are the best toys ever). We didn't really visit any of the other museums because we wanted to see everything, which meant we didn't have time to linger (and everyone wants to charge you 14 pounds for entry, so they make their museum a half-day "experience" with dudes in viking costumes).

In London we stayed in Earl's Court, which was full of visiting Australians, but also a visiting Time Lord (his TARDIS was parked outside the tube station). Oh, and I love the underground. Best public transport ever ,or at least the most fun. We went to Camden Markets on our last morning in London, it's a very strange place, very indy, but a lot of fun. I think Liz would find it the most fun place on earth (although I couldn't find her a Christmas present there, which was very odd).

Then we caught a bus to Oxford (we've been catching a lot of buses because they're so much cheaper than the trains, even if they do take longer), and I caught a cold. We didn't get to do very much during the days we were there, though we did see "the Golden Compass", which was set in Oxford and had Kate Bush singing the closing theme, and we wandered around the outside of the colleges for a while. Then we spent a lot of time sorting out how to get back to Ribchester and we had to leave, although Jessie and I had a huge fight and I'm still not sure we're good again.

We stopped in Birmingham on the way back, and although we didn't really have time to walk around the city (what with it being the 23rd and James and I not having done any Christmas shopping) we really liked the place. Somehow the mall was familiar and comforting, and the mix of the old town and the industrial city was fascinating. I'm sorry we didn't have more time there.

So then it was Christmas. We went to a "music and miscellany" service in an ancient church within walking distance on Christmas Eve (this church was so ancient that it had no lighting or heating and it really was carols by candlelight because there was no other way to see what was going on). We got back to the house and Jessie played carols for everyone though I still had no voice from the stupid cold. At this point we had picked up her friend Tamazin who was a day late because of fog at Heathrow (and without luggage because of the same schemozzle - it turned up yesterday morning and she finally had different clothes to wear), so the house was full up and rather friendly.

Christmas morning we had a nice big breakfast, with lots of porridge and crumpets and potato farls (which are like pancakes made out of mashed potato - I think I'd like to try making them one time at home) and it was good. I got two books for Christmas: the new Eoin Colfer book Airman from James, and One Skein (http://www.oneskein.com/) from Valerie and David; a 2GB memory card for my camera from the Ballantines and a silk shopping bag that collapses down to nothing from Jessica. Very thoughtful gifts, all of them.

After present opening we went for a walk around town for a few hours (we even kidnapped one of the neighbour's dogs to make things more interesting. It was a long ramble around Ribchester, showing Tamazin what the town looks like in the fog and mist and rather muddy for all involved. My poor shoes. One of these days we're going to have enough time to buy me some boots.

Christmas dinner was amazing (but I think I prefer having a huge lunch, I was dying of starvation by the time we got to eat *grins*), even if it was all vegetarian. Lots of baked vegetables, a rather tasty nut roast (better than mine, and much more nutty) and a yummy tomato sauce to go on it. And the pudding went up in flames as it was meant to, which was good.

Now we have all the relatives here, and the rest of the England leg seems like it's going to be dominated by games and other indoor activities. I'm knitting a little bag from the pattern book which will match Valerie's hot water bottle (which seems to be the talk of the town and people keep asking me if I will knit one for them). Very odd, maybe I should start taking commissions (and money).

Someone else just arrived, so I probably ought to head downstairs after all.

Labels: alligators, christmas, england, holiday

   Never Change, Korea...

So, funnily enough I've been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately. It's fun, it's boppy, and it's really amusing if it's Engrishy.

Take a listen to this one: Lee So Eun - Winter Wonderland and tell me if you can hear what I hear in the second verse. I've tried and tried to hear the correct lyrics, but the more I loop the song the more I can only hear the common mondegreen... ETA: Someone tell me when I stuff up my links so I can fix them.

Labels: alligators, korea, music