The OGB

It has been a while between posts. This has mostly been because many times I tried to write and thought that if I did I risked being labelled a Negative Nancy. Not wanting to drown you in pessimism and despair I left the blog alone for a time. But I can no longer contain my feelings.

The past few weeks we hired a car and drove around the UK. We did a grand, scenic loop of Scotland, went down through the Lakes district, down to Oxford, London and now we are in Bath. It has been an utterly whirlwind tour. We have broken our Number 1 Golden Rule, which was to take things slow, not try and see everything, and just stay in one or two places. We have stayed and been EVERYWHERE and it hasn't been very good for us. There has been mostly bad weather and busy roads. The UK is so ridiculously expensive and its summer so sad, rainy and cold that we have come to affectionately name this country The Old Grey Bitch. (sorry kiddies). She steals your money and literally sucks the tan right out of your body. The cheapest night in the crappiest hostel room in England cost us more then our 5 star resort in Vietnam with private pool and beach and giant buffet breakfast.

ANYWAY. There have been lovely rays of fun and beauty amongst the bleak drizzle nonetheless. The Isle of Skye was magnificent and so epic that afterwards our brains actually hurt from trying to process the scenery. The Lakes District had quiet, still and pretty beauty straight from poetry and your favourite classic English novel. And our whirlwind 7 hour tour of London included a Spanish wine and tapas festival, seeing every major monument on the map and squirrels. We visited the Glenlivet distillery, saw a Scottish Highland Games, and I got to do a tour of the Globe Theatre while they were rehearsing for Richard III so actually got to see and hear actors in full costume prancing the stage. (I was such a geek that I actually got a bit teary. Haha, so lame)

Also, if you can get Toby a little happy and cajole him to giving you his rendition of Scottish Highland Dancing you will not be disappointed. This gave us much amusement.

In all, it's been an adventure but a not very enjoyable one and pretty tiring too so we will not be sad to say farewell on Thursday when we head to Dublin. And we'll be much much less sad when we get to New York where summer is actually in full swing and we can have patio parties with the Jens. Bring back the heat (and my tan) please!

Here are some pictures of pretty things, as well as a picture of how I pretended to feel when I was in Oxford and how I ACTUALLY felt. Its not the most attractive photo but you might laugh.