After arriving back from Holland, I headed up to Burnley in Lancashire for three weeks' work, while Tish stayed in Wisbech.
Burnley was a fantastic job. Unfortunately I didn't have a car for the trip and stayed at a B&B nearby the clinic. Staying at the B&B was nice, with good breakfasts every morning but I have to say as far as dinner goes, I'm pretty over tuna salads!
The Lancashire area has some really nice scenery about the place with plenty of greenery and hills. This was predominantly shrouded with a light-to-heavy curtain of rain but was still nice and particularly enjoyable given how good the job was.
Tish and I made it out for one weekend about the place. We visited Blackpool for a musical which was an experience in itself - there was us, about 100 50+ year olds that were there for the musical, and I think everyone else in the city centre was drunk and dressed up as a superhero or some other theme concept for a hens/bucks night. It was like walking through a sideshow! The same weekend we also got into Manchester and managed to see Brazil vs Belarus in their Olympic football fixture at Old Trafford which was a nice bonus. Old Trafford was a good viewing venue and the roof must get lifted off in the local derbies!
After the three weeks in Burnley we headed to Croatia with Mitch and Simone Brown (2 of Tish's mates from uni) and two of their friends. We had two weeks taking a trip moreorless from north to south of the country and it was fantastic. We started up in Zagreb, the capital, but left after one night for the Plitvice Lakes. They were amazing - they're a freshwater lake network inland from the Split which no-one is allowed to swim in so they were pristine and the scenery was awesome. We had a walk around the lake system and a couple of nights in the area which were great. We then headed to the Split which was also great. Split's a seaside town with an 'old town' area too. The seafood was great, plenty of sun and a daytrip out Trogir too. I did manage to nearly kill us all with a slip onto the wrong side of the road while driving but we narrowly escaped.
From Split we started our island hopping. We travelled between Brac, Hvar Island and Korcula which provided a good variety but always plenty of sun and water! Probably the highlight of the islands was card nights in our apartments on Hvar and Korcula islands after seafood dinners and local beers. The lowlight was definitely nearly getting Tish and I squashed on our scooter. Great stuff! I think I might be banned from driving...
From Korcula we headed to Dubrovnik at the south end of Croatia. Dubrovnik was a great city with the centrepiece being the old city itself. It was fascinating tripping around a city which featured so heavily in the Homeland War - which I can remember hearing so much about on the news as a kid. The tourist industry hasn't completely developed the history aspect of the war but there is a pretty good exhibition at the top of the hill where the city fort is. Dubrovnik has a really interesting history as a pivotal port between Venice and the Middle East which was great to read about. The old city was amazing to look around and luckily we had all but one day free of the notorious cruise ships which plonk thousands of tourists and yapping guides into the city which completely changes the feel from warm, cruisy days to frantic, raucous pushes through the streets and various attractions.
Sorry to see the sun, warmth and holiday go, but having had an ample fix of sun and water for the time being, we headed back to England. Even got to catch up with Ben Abell at the Gatwick Airport on the way back which was a bonus - he was en route to Africa and in fine form.
At this point Tish finally had a change from Wisbech and moved to Cheddleton near Stoke-on-Trent for two weeks. I had a further week at the Burnley clinic and then a run on night shifts in Manchester. The nightshifts were OK - they did allow sleep when we were quiet and the work was OK without being fantastic. Tish's job had an awesome flat though so we had a bit of R&R there between transiting!
We had another weekend away in Porthcawl, Wales for Mitch's birthday which was another lot of laughs. We had a hilarious day on Sunday walking through some of the Brecon Beacons which ended up with 13 hungover Aussies following Mitch's questionable orienteering before finding our way back.
We continued our mix-n-match month with a week of work in London for me, while Tish headed up to Wrexham in north Wales for the fortnight. I traveled up there for the second of those weeks - hours on the train being racked up constantly! The week in Wrexham was good - again we didn't have a car and this time not much time off work to do much out and about. We did stay at an extremely creepy B&B for one night before heading to a much better B&B where we were force-fed breakfast and very well looked-after!
That was Tish's last work for a little while - she has now embarked on a Turkish holiday with her mum and sister, whilst I have moved down to Poole, Dorset for the fortnight. I did manage to squeeze in my first trip to Lord's Cricket Ground on the weekend in between, which was great - saw the first innings of the CB40 but had to leave before the second. The game ended up in a tie so I was pretty devastated I missed it!
So it has been down to Dorset for the fortnight for me. Lovely corner of the country with lots of sights around apparently - I have a day off coming up which hopefully will allow me to see some of them - evidently Poole has the second biggest natural harbour in the world, behind our very own Sydney.
Just a couple more weeks in London after this week and then back to Australia for the Spring and Summer- plenty planned all round and lots to look forward to! It's amazing how quickly the 6 months in the UK has flown by, with work filling in the majority of the past couple of months. The working experience has been forever interesting - the way British describe different health issues is forever entertaining. I've never heard so many terms for animals urinating as I have here - 'spending a penny' is my favourite. The first time I heard it, however, not understanding what it meant, I was sorry to hear that Mrs Smith's dog was having trouble spending a penny, but I was pretty bewildered/impressed that it could spend one in the first place!
Plenty of stories and plenty of opportunities to tell more at a later date.
So goodbye for now,
I shall write more sometime!
