Weekend in London 30th to 31st of August 2008

Thanks to a workmate of Warren's, he was able to get a ticket to a Premiership match between Arsenal and Newcastle for Saturday afternoon. So he went up by himself to Arsenal in northeast London to their new Emirates Stadium with 60,000 other people. Great experience and the homeside had a win so (almost) everyone was happy. Ange was left at home and decided to go and sit by the river with some mates and some cider.

Sunday afternoon we went to Claridges for English afternoon tea. It was a present from Warren's sister for our wedding (thanks Caz!) and was great fun dressing up, eating sandwiches and scones and of course drinking tea!

The Lakes District - 23rd to 25th August 2008

Bank holiday weekend in England, so we hired a car and drove north with Nicola to the Lakes District. The Lakes District is in northwest England, famous for its lakes (surprisingly!) and its mountains. It should have been about a 5 hour drive, but with long weekend traffic took us closer to 6 and a half. We finally made it there on Saturday afternoon and checked into our farmstay near Hawkshead overlooking a paddock to a little lake.

Sunday we toured around the surrounding villages Ambleside, Keswick, Penrith and Windermere through some tight and twisty country roads with plenty of stone walls trying to take off our wing mirrors!

On Monday we arose to rain, so pretty much just headed back to London. Lots of driving but well worth the trip!

Brighton - 16 August 2008

A week after York, with Warren's parents still around, we travelled down to the south coast of England to Brighton. The girls (Ange, Warren's Mum and Warren' sister) spent the morning looking around the shops for dresses to Warren's sister's wedding, while Warren and his Dad wandered around the pier and beachfront.

Warren's cousin and his wife live in Brighton, and the main reason for the trip was to attend their son's first birthday. Lots of crazy childrens music and games, and plenty of adults speaking in baby talk, but a good afternoon in the sun. We left Warren's parents in Brighton for the night (they planned to spend a few days looking around southwest England), while the rest of us got the train back to London, around 10pm.

York - 8th to 10th of August 2008

With Warren's parents in the country and keen to look around, we hired a car and got up early on Friday to travel up to York. We went with Warren's parents in their hire car following Carolyn and Glenn in their car. The trip north was probably around 5 hours, but we stopped on the way at Sherwood Forest, the home of Robin Hood, for a quick walk through the visitor centre and out to a major Oak tree, at least 300 years old.

After a late lunch in York we went to York Minster, the second largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe, and walked up the 270 steps of the tower for some great views over York. The Cathedral itself was very impressive, right up there with some of the monsters we saw in Italy. Saturday was rubbish weather wise, but we battled the rain for a few hours running from shop to shop through the crazy old streets known as the Shambles.

We then headed out towards Hull (about an hour east of York). Warren's Grandad was born just out of Hull in 1922 (before coming to New Zealand in 1926) in a town called Ferriby, in this very house:

Sunday we walked some of the city walls around York, before taking a cruise along the Ouse River (the river that runs through York) and stopping in at the largest railway museum in Europe. Back on the road around 4pm for our trip back to London with Carolyn and Glenn, getting home just after 8. We left Warren's parents in Yorkshire to spend the week travelling around, and planning to return to London before the following weekend.

Warren's b'day weekend - 1st to 3rd of August 2008

As a joint housewarming/Warren's birthday celebration, we had our London friends around for a few drinks on Friday night. Our London friends total about 15, and most of them turned up which was great. Surprisingly (since we finished up around 3am), no complaints were made from the neighbours about the noise!
On Saturday, Ange had planned a surprise afternoon for me. We went out to east London for the Red Bull Air Race, which just happened to be in London this weekend. Very quick (the pilots pull up to 10 G's) and some awesome stunts, so it was a very fun afternoon. We travelled back to Putney on the ferry along the river which we hadn't done before either!
Sunday morning (Warren's actual birthday) Warren's parents arrived for their 5 weeks in Europe, so we were up early cooking pancakes for breakfast. We spent the day catching up with them before going out for a nice pub meal for dinner. 26 years and Warren yet to spend a birthday without his parents!