Skip to main content

Not involving snow

With a little judicious (dis)organisation, we somehow managed to see most of the people we wanted to in our two-week UK visit. Being Christmas, we concentrated on spending time with family, but fitted in a few friends as well.

So, Mom and Dad hosted us for Christmas. The chief photographer was obviously neglecting his duties in favour of opening presents, as I don't seem to have any photos of the happy occasion. On Boxing Day, though, he really went to town. Or should that be Town? The four of us paid a visit to London, and I was constantly afraid of losing Graham amongst the thronging crowds on the South Bank, as he paused to capture yet another view on camera. It has to be said he got some nice shots, though. We went with the intention of riding the London Eye, which unfortunately was closed for repairs. So we got our birds-eye view - and some exercise - by climbing the dome at St Paul's. They charge you a fair whack to get in, but it's worth it. Really.

St Paul's and Millennium Bridge

Big Ben and London Eye

Dad, me and Mom at St Paul's
The next day we slogged up the M1 to Nottinghamshire, fabled home of Robin Hood and certain members of my family. We spent a happy afternoon visiting with my aunt and a couple of my cousins. One of whom has coincidentally married a Texan and had three gorgeous girls, who were very pleased to let these strange new relatives build marble runs and throw balloons around with them.

Todmorden means Graham's family, of course, and we were welcomed with open arms and offered a brew before we'd got both feet across the threshold! We opened a few more gifts (funny, I haven't got any photos of that, either) and made some cautious ventures out into the icy countryside.


Us with Graham's parents at nice Christmassy pub
We spent New Year in the Peak District with Graham's sister and cousin, and a bunch of other people who've been meeting up for New Year since time immemorial. They kindly let us gatecrash for a couple of days and join in board games, quizzes and the obligatory rendering of Auld Lang Syne.



Tackling the Telegraph 2009 quiz with Graham's sister and cousin

Family portrait

Sliding down south again, we made a brief stop in Kenilworth for a context-confusing visit to some friends we met in Fort Worth. In Bristol we somehow managed to round up about 15 people for a curry at a moment's notice - thanks for coming out, guys! We enjoyed seeing you! I also walked into a staff meeting at Cairns Road and was greeted as if I'd never left. Had we stayed ten minutes longer I would have had three jobs to do and never left again!

However, we surfed back to Reading on the wave of an incoming snowstorm, which subsequently broke in dramatic fashion and almost prevented us from leaving as well. We wouldn't have objected to a few days more, but on the whole it was probably best that we got the flight.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mr White Watson of Bakewell

Once upon a time, back in 1795 or so, lived a man who was always asking questions.  The kind of questions like, "Why is glass transparent?" or "Why do fruit trees grow better in that place than in this place?" or "What does the earth look like underneath the surface?"  This last question was one that he was particularly interested in, and he went so far as to work out what the rock layers looked like where he lived, and draw little pictures of them.  Now he was a marble sculptor by trade (as well as fossil hunter, mineral seller, and a few other things) so he thought it would be even better to make his little pictures in stone.  That way he could represent the layers using the actual rocks they were composed of.  Over the course of his lifetime he made almost 100 of these tablets, as he called them. Then he died.  And no one else was quite as interested in all those rocks and minerals as he was.  His collection was sold off, bit by bit, and the table...
Post a Comment
Read more

A mini-pilgrimage to Derby Cathedral

On a sunny day near the end of June, I set out to walk from my village of Findern to Derby Cathedral. If this had been 1826 or even 1926, this would have been a perfectly normal activity. In 2026, no one spends two hours walking to the nearest city. They drive, or catch a bus. It feels faintly subversive to ignore the more obvious modes of transport and to set off on foot. Priory Way, the footpath north out of Findern, is on the Six-Inch series of OS maps from the late 1800s. It has probably not changed much, give or take a few electrical pylons. The fields and farms are still there. Butterflies flew over bright yellow flowers of lady's bedstraw; a hare paused to look at me; a squirrel panicked and almost ran over my toes. After a few miles I came out at Heatherton Pond, greeting its more manicured path with relief. This is now the edge of Derby city; the boundary runs just south of the lake. However, I was surprised at how much more green space I encountered. A cycle path took me ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rotherham Minster

I read another blog post which started, "There comes a time in everyone's life, when one simply must go to Rotherham." And I thought that was such a good first line that I've nicked it. I had not, it is true, previously given much consideration to going to Rotherham. Then I worked out that Sheffield Cathedral and Rotherham Minster were not far apart, and the train ride from Derby was reasonably cheap. Moreover, my cousin Vicky lives in the area and I could pay her a long-overdue visit. Great, I thought, I'll schedule a trip in a few weeks' time. On Friday morning I looked at Rotherham Minster website and discovered that the church isn't usually open on Saturdays, but there was a Community Day the very next day. A bit of hasty texting later, and I had a plan: Rotherham Minster in the morning, Sheffield Cathedral in the afternoon, and Vicky would meet me in Sheffield city centre after that. Rotherham Minster The train to Sheffield was busy but uneventful. A...
Post a Comment
Read more