Slackers.

The whole month of September went by with nary a comment from us on this wee bloggy. And for that we are sorry and feel very bad and hope you will all forgive us.

I would first like to blame the insane weather - last week it appears that winter made a promotional appearance in the small towns of Bedford and Northampton and good GOD it was cold. I am not at all prepared for living somewhere where there are actual seasons - apparently it is going to snow!! I walk to work from the bus. This prospect both excites and saddens me...

Since the last post most of our time has been reasonably similar - working, hanging out at home, counting our pounds so that we know how much of a holiday we can afford on the way home! Coincidentally, if you'd like to mark the 8th of May 2009 on your calendars, that is when we will be returning to the fair lands of New Zealand :) We've booked and will be coming home via New York and Los Angeles - if anyone can suggest cheap and fun things to do in either place, or cheap places to stay, please let us know!

Oo! That's right. I've also been doing improv classes with the Spontaneity Shop which are going great. We'll be performing a Micetro on Sunday 9 November and I'm also doing a show with Impromtu Theatre at Halloween which will be a kind of horror/goofy long form story for kids. What is Impromtu Theatre you say? Why it's mine and Amanda Bolt's theatre company! I know. It's awesome. More info on that as I have it. Maybe. If I remember to blog.

The most significant thing we've done though is our trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh with Jennie, and our trip to Cork with the O'Sullivan clan. Here goes!

Started it all by driving to Glasgow and meeting Jennie at our hostel. The freaken awesomeness of seeing Jennie for the first time in two years was soon replaced by shocked hilarity at the abysmal state of our lodgings. The place was a Georgian house turned in to separate rooms with shoddy walls, smelly dark lounge and kitchen, and hilarious inappropriate room names. They were named after different countries, and ours was the Bahamas. Our room with a smelly couch, dank curtains, and a bunk bed with two mattresses squished on the bottom bunk in order to pass as a three bed room. Yeah - not so much Bahamas as god awful glasgow.

But it was great hanging out with Jennie, we went to a yum tapas bar and visited some nice parks around the place. After two nights staying in hell's hostel, we headed to Edinburgh via Stirling, and visited the William Wallace monument (see photo album). It was pretty cool! A big castle on top of a hill overlooking the town and lots of 'Scotland's freedom - England is the stinkness' stuff :) Then to Edinburgh where we met up with Kerry and stayed in the hostel where he is working. Compared to the Glasgow hostel, it was pretty much the Hilton. Really nice people, lots of light, clean and smell free rooms.

That night Joe, Jennie and I went on a walking tour of the streets of Edinburgh which was very cool. We met the guide at about 9pm, and a big group of us followed him round for about an hour, stopping at different places while he explained the historical significance of the spot. For example the car park. Which was on top of a huge graveyard. After wandering above ground we were then taken down under the roads and hills to some awesome tunnels and rooms and treated to a ghost story. Basically we went to a room and we were given a big speech about how back in the day, the tunnels were used by homeless people who all piled up in the dark and lived in the wet cold rooms. One day there was a huge fire and the doors caved in, which meant that all the people left inside were in an enormous brick oven. Baked hobos! About a hundred people died. Now while this story was being told, they turned off all the lights so we were standing in the dark, listening to a scary voice, and I was looking around (well trying to). There was a bit of light behind the entrance and as I watched it listening to the story I suddenly saw the shadows form the shape of a person.

Now, I'm sure we all know who my father is, and I'm sure we can appreciate that if he thought for a second that a daughter of his believed in ghosts then there would be hell to pay! My first thoughts were, gosh that is interesting how those shadows look like a person. Wait. It is a person. And I'm a hundred percent sure it is a real person. Well 99% sure. I could be seeing things. This is just my imagination. Of course! Wait she moved again. Okay what the hell. And then at the appropriate and planned moment in the story, she let out a great big scream. Yes I jumped. But most I was super glad that I wasn't imagining things!

Don't worry Dad, I don't believe in ghosts. But it was a neat set up :)

Anyways! After that, we went back to the hostel and the next day drove back down to Bedford, via the East coast and the scenic route. In fact the roads were actually labelled 'Scenic Route'. It was very nice, Joe drove all the way, Jennie in the back reading Harry Potter 7 (she threw the book at the end in disgust, a vocal critic :D ) and lovely scenery down the countryside. Saw lots of castle ruins on the way, the border between Scotland and England (it wasn't marked on the way up on the west) and general Englishness.

Jennie stayed the night with us and unpacked all her stuff (we are the new guardians of her junk) and the next day we all went to London on the train. Jennie went off to stay with her brother Peter, and Joe and I headed to Stansted to jump on the plane to Cork! Trains were running late which was frustrating for us, but scary for Chris and Milly who were meant to be on the same flight as us and only just managed to get there in time. Very dramatic but overall no fuss :)

We stayed one night in Cork (the city) at a hostel called the Bru Bar and Hostel, and turns out it's run and owned by Kiwis! Apparently we know how to do things properly cos this hostel was awesome. The bar was great, on a good street, lovely clean and good looking decor, NZ flags around the place. Figures the first time we go to Ireland we meet a bunch of Kiwis :) The next day we packed up the rental car and headed to Castletownbere.

And I will save our Irish part of the trip for the next blog as this is ridiculously long already :) Will do a new post as soon as I can! I would hate to leave you hanging again ...

Mwah