A tale of sickness and minimal excitement. I'm sat at a Travelodge in Stafford which is our roadside home for the night eating my carrots and humous while my poor very sick wife has a bath. We are on our way to Glasgow to start our mini road trip test run for the next 17 days before Amy (or Kamy as they have referred to themselves) arrives but Kate didn't have the drive in her so we have stopped half way.
We have both been sick, really sick. At first it was the thought of a hectic week or so catching up with us and some rest would do us good. But that has turned into a week long snot and cough fest that would see even the most trusting Asian run for the SARS mask.
Our two nights in the toon we barely made it outside. We cannot thank our hosts Tim and Jen enough. They were so accommodating and were just as happy to do nothing with us! We discussed plot holes in Harry Potter and Star Wars and counted down the 10 most controversial moments of Friends (some how the next few days get more boring!!!). It was however so good to see Tim. It has been far too long and Newcastle has been great for the great man. Can't wait to hear about their special day early this year and hopefully can catch up with him in the summer.
Doull left us to chase some tail (successfully as he reminded us several thousand times) as we drove back into London. That day was probably my worst and Kate powered through 6 hours of driving. Jack ignored his phone so we made our way into Stoke Newington for the next four nights. Stoke Newington is an interesting part of London. It's this amazing mix of the haves and have-nots. The most well dressed man will leave his £1M apartment and step over the 'special' gift left by the homeless man the night before. I first hand made my way through one of these special gifts!!! Whole Foods and organic groceries are flagged by Dixie Chicken and £1.49 large pizzas. It's the St Kilda of London on a Saturday with a not so friendly Jew everywhere and a very present Jehovahs Witness thrown in. We never felt unsafe, but we also never felt confident walking down the street at night.
Luckily due to how sick we were at this point, walking down the street at night wasn't a real issue. The 30th, 31st and the 1st we spent on average 18 hours a day in bed. As posted a couple of nights we did make it out for dinner, but the effort was insane and being in bed at 9pm was a late one. Fireworks and the cool kids did wake us up at New Years for a quick kiss but even that was tiring. The place we stayed was a share house so while we had a good room and ensuite, it was a bit uncomfortable using the shared kitchen and we were happy to move on this morning.
As mentioned a couple of times we have decided to get a car as a test run for Europe. We will drive around Scotland and Northern England hitting a few major cities but also trying to hit the smaller untraveled parts of the U.K. We are excited about this and really think that if this works which we know it will, we will try it for 3 months in Europe. The car hire is cheap, but the juice is not!
I will end this blog on a high tho...on the 2nd Jack Doull and I went to a game of football. For Christmas Jack got the boys tickets to Fulham v Brighton. We sat at the Fulham home end (which also in pure amazement to us, determined which pub we could have a beer at before the game!) It was a complete culture shock to us but I guess gave us a warning / understanding of how volatile English football can be. Craven Cottege is amazing I was so thrilled to be there. We picked early the players we liked and the ones who were duds and were proven correct. Humphries being called a "fkn fat twat" was exactly what we were thinking. The sound was unreal and non stop. The fans live on every single kick. The game where 'we' lost 1-2 had more excitement than 85% of AFL games. Words and pictures will never do it justice. This was a huge bucket list item for me and I can't have been happier to share it with these great men.
Kate dragged herself out of bed for a debrief and meal at the pub as well as the first few sets of MvG dominating the darts final. We said goodbye to the Doull who is again off chasing the ladies but when he gets home - boys ask him about this new girlfriend from Melbourne! He will lie but his eyes and smile will tell you the truth. We will catch up with Jack when we are back in London on the 19th but it was a touch sad (can't believe I am writing this) to see the Doull off. He was a more than welcome addition to our trip.
I am getting better, and we have started Kate on some antibiotics so she'll be back up soon. Glasgow tomorrow for now only two nights then Edinburgh for 4 nights. And hey...I just found a reply of a Big Bash game on free TV so I'm pretty happy.
Happy New Years everyone. Love and miss you all (well most of you).
Until next time, Mighty out.
