Susan and Kenny come to visit

After we got back from skiing, Andrew's fraternity brother Kenny came to visit for a weekend with his wife, Susan. They basically decided to come and planned their entire trip in only a couple of weeks. It was really nice having them in town. We took them sightseeing some and spent a lot of time just hanging out at pubs. Kenny was referring to it as "Pub Crawl 2009", but he failed. Their last night in town, he fell asleep and didn't even wake up for dinner!

Spring Break '09 – Chamonix!!

In March we went skiing in the French Alps with a group of 15 friends. We stayed in Les Houches (pronounced Le Zoosh), France, just outside of Chamonix, at a "little" chalet called the Chalet Rocky Mountain.

It was truly amazing. The chalet has three floors, seven bedrooms and four showers, a huge living room area, a dining area and full kitchen (along with chefs), a wrap-around porch and a hot tub out back. Bridgette and Melissa, who do the upkeep of the chalet, cooked amazing meals for us every night but one and baked goodies for us to snack on when we came in from our hard days of skiing. Andrew and I had been waiting for this trip for so long, and it was amazing to finally get to do it, especially with such a fun group!

The group consisted of me and Andrew, the Frasers, the Triefenbachs and Katy's little sister, our single friend Kevin, his sister and two of his friends, Jeremy and Michelle and a couple of their friends. Some of these people are some of our closest friends in London; some of them we knew but not well, and some of them we'd never met. Amazingly, though there were 15 of us all staying in one place, sharing four bathrooms and common areas, we all managed to get along smashingly! Following is my day-to-day diary of the trip, for easier intake…

Saturday, 7 March
Day 1 - Getting the Gear

When we arrived, the resort workers bussed us out in two Land Rovers to the ski shop where we picked up our rented gear. When I got fitted for my boots, the man brought over a pair of silver and blue ones, to which I exclaimed, "Oh! How pretty!" Only afterward did I realise that practically everyone's rented boots were blue and silver. However, I think because the ski-rental guy found me so goofy, he then fit me with a pair of hot pink skis (to which I also exclaimed with delight), while all the other beginners had neon orange (YUCK).

Note the three pairs of orange skis and then see how much prettier my hot pink ones are with my silver and blue ski boots!










Sunday, 8 March
Day 2 – Lessons

Our first full day of skiing was a full day of lessons for me and those four we began lovingly referring to all week as the Jacks-hyphen-Triefenbachs (Jeremy and Katy Triefenbach and Emily Jacks, Katy's sister). Jeremy had skied before, but the rest of us were complete novices. Our instructor was very, very French. We had trouble understanding her at first, but by the end of the day we'd learned her turns of phrase and dubbed ourselves "Team Snow-Ploh" (which is how the instructor pronounced the word snow plough, a move that you learn as a beginner to help you control your speed and/or stop). I can happily brag that my instructor was very impressed that I had never skied before and said I was a natural (she should have seen me on Day 3 – Disaster). We learned on some flat slopes and then moved on the Bunny Slope, but by the end of the day, we were going down a Blue Run (which is the easiest in Les Houches), and I was so freakin' proud of myself.

Andrew, that same day, decided to take a half-day of snowboarding lessons with four others: Kevin and his sister, Jim, and Jeremy K. Although he picked it up rather quickly, he immediately started trying to go down some Red Runs (intermediate slopes) and ended up falling down a lot. Apparently, when you're on skis, it's much easier to keep your balance because your legs are separate, and when you fall, you're most likely going to fall straight forward and brace yourself with your hands (boy, did I figure that out fast). However, on a snowboard, you have to have a lot more balance using your upper body and arms, and when you fall, you can pretty much fall any which way, and you hands aren't much help because you were trying to use them to balance! He ended up at the end of the day with a sore bum, and though he hasn't given up on snowboarding completely, yet, after not having skied for 13 years, he really just wanted to strap on a pair and enjoy the rest of the week without having to try and figure out how. So he decided to turn in the snowboard at the end of the day and rent a pair of skis instead.

Monday, 9 March
Day 3 – Disaster

So, as I said, I was ecstatic and was pretty much thinking that I was a skiing queen (with a bad sun/wind burn the morning of Day 3)! I was ready to tackle the Black Runs (the most difficult) on my second day of skiing (I'm exaggerating a bit – I was confident, but not quite that confident). So I did the Bunny Slope a few times to "warm up", and then I was ready. Katy and Emily wanted to stay on the Bunny Slope a bit more, but Jeremy Trief and I went with Sharon (Shaz) and Andrew down a couple of Blue Runs. I got scared. It was so narrow and steep! How could Team Snow-Ploh go from side to side on such a narrow strip?! I got more scared. I fell. I cried. I got up. I fell again. I cried some more. I took off my skis and walked a little, then put them back on and fell again. And cried a bit more, just for good measure. I swore, as though I were a four-year-old Kelly screaming at Judy Harper after she tried teaching me to swim by jumping in the deep end and sinking down to the bottom, that I would never go skiing again and was convinced that Andrew was trying to kill me. So then we went to lunch, and after lunch, Jeremy and Andrew went off in search of more difficult slopes, while Shaz and I stayed in the restaurant a while longer and had some hot chocolate to nurse my wounded ego.

Shaz decided to ski with me because she's kind of a lackadaisical skier and pretty much gets dragged skiing by her husband, Emmanuel. Don't get me wrong, She's a really good skier; she just doesn't much care for flying down a mountainside balancing on two sticks at 100 miles per hour (as she put it). So she decided to do the Blue Runs with me. When we were just finishing up our hot chocolate and getting ready to go out and tackle the Blues again, Katy and Emily came in. Apparently, they had gotten confident on their skis and decided to do the same Blue Run we'd done with our instructor the day before, but they made a wrong turn and ended up basically rolling head over skis all the way down a Red Run. Needless to say, they were upset, and cranky, and mad at one another, and had even contemplated which of them would eat the other if they got stranded and were close to death on the side of the mountain. They decided to call it a day.

Shaz and I headed out and ran into even more trouble. I couldn't get my ski on. Try as I might, the stupid thing WOULD NOT GO ON. Understand that Sharon Fraser is an incredibly calm, down-to-earth and patient person. She very rarely loses her cool. I was getting upset again. I was holding one foot with ski (the one successfully latched on) in the air, as I jumped up and down on the other trying to get the bottom one to latch. Sharon would make me stop every few minutes to say soothing words to me and make me take a few deep breaths before trying again. My frustration levels, after having been so sure of myself the day before, just shattered. At one point I stopped, picked up the troublesome ski, raised it over my head with both arms and threw it as hard as could in front of me, screaming, "I HATE SKIING!!!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of my lungs. Mind you understand that we're right outside the main café just after lunch at this time; there are people passing by, chuckling at my misery, etc. It was appalling. Shaz calmed me down again, and we eventually got that damned ski back on. We did the Blue Slope (which then became known as The Blue Slope That I Like) over and over and over until we got tired and left the mountain.

Tuesday, 10 March
Day 4 – Me and Shaz

Sharon took me out and basically coached me and coaxed me down some new runs. She took me to another Blue Run that was about right between the Slope That I Like and the slope that Andrew took me down that I iced over with all my crying the day before. We took it easy and practiced and just had a really great day together. About mid-day, we went down to La Cha, a restaurant at the very bottom of the Slope That I Like, where we sat down with some hot drinks and called the husbands. They came, bringing along the rest of the group, and we all had a nice lunch together. Afterward, we all went out again. Sharon and I skied together for a while longer and then left the mountain to have some tomato juice in the bar at the bottom.

Wednesday, 11 March
Day 5 – The Blisters and the White Out

On the fifth day of my adventures in skiing I awakened with a gosh-awful mouthful of fever blisters to accompany the terribly sunburn I’d awakened with the day before. They were so bad that I was ashamed to walk upstairs. Then Sharon came in and had the same problem! She decided not to ski that day because we couldn’t put anything up over our faces for fear of spreading them even more. I was afraid that if I didn’t ski, then I would forget everything I’d learned the past two days. So I sucked it up and went, taking fever blister cream in tow and putting it on every hour or so. I also shoved a book in my vest, just in case I got too frustrated with Shaz to calm my nerves. I refused to ski with Andrew and friends that morning. I decided to stick to the easy stuff with Katy, who was back in the saddle (er… skis), and Jeremy T., who was patiently cheering her on as she cruised down the Bunny Slope. I did the Bunny Slope a few times and became bored, so I went out on my own to the Blue Slope That I Like. I would do it once or twice by myself (including the top part, the Part of Which I Was Deathly Afraid because it was so steep) and then would ski back down to the Bunny Slope, which was right next to the Blue Slope That I Like, to check in with Katy and Jeremy and let them know that I was A-okay. That morning, heading out on my own, I realised what a White Out is. When I got up to the top of the Blue Slope That I Like, the Part of Which I Was Deathly Afraid, I realised that I could no longer see my hot skis on my feet. The fog and snow were so heavy that I literally could not see my feet below me, much less the bottom of the slope. I couldn’t even tell where the edge was. Luckily, I’d done it so many times the day before with Shaz, that this only caused me a slight panic attack and a frenzy of scared-out-of-my-wits every time I started at the top.

So then at one point, I was about halfway down on a relatively flat bit, when I heard a child crying off to my right. This wasn’t just whimpering, the child was crying hysterically, but I couldn’t see my feet, so of course I couldn’t tell where the child was or why it was bawling. I made my way over to the sound, though, which was coming from the ski lifts, which were the kind that’s just a circular seat attached to a long pole. You just grab it and hold on for dear life with your skis on the ground as it pulls you up the mountain. I get over there and see a little girl wearing a red vest marking her as a ski student, and she’s laying in the centre of the track where the poles are coming up. If someone were to ride the next pole up, they’d run smack into her before they ever saw her with the conditions as bad as they were that day. So I made my way over to her and helped her up and out of the path of the poles… but that was as far as I could go. I didn’t know what level this girl was, and the snow was so thick on the sides of the pole path that I could barely make it through; it was above my waist. I wasn’t sure if she could get through it, and being a beginner I didn’t really think to take OFF both our skis and try wading through it. So I just held her there and waited, assuming her instructor HAD to eventually come back for her. We saw three people ride the poles past us, just staring at us while I pleaded for them to send and instructor our way if they saw one. Then we saw two instructors pass us, also staring as I begged for their help (I can only pray that they were on their way to look for other lost children and knew my little girl’s instructor was on his way). Finally he arrived. Not so much as a thank you from the instructor. And then I figured out why. Once the little girl back on the slope, she whizzed on down and left me in the dust. She was no novice and could have gotten herself up, back down the mountain and rode the ski lift up on her own! She was just being a little drama queen!

After checking in with the Triefs on the Bunny Slope again, I called Andrew and arranged to meet him and rest of the crew at the restaurant at the bottom of the Slope That I Like for lunch. I skied down there on my own because Katy was still a little shaky on her skis after her escapades with Emily the day before and wanted to stay clear at the top of the mountain. We had lunch, and then Andrew spent the rest of the day on the Blues with me. We did several Blue Slopes, and I even skied down the entire front side of the mountain at the end of the day (the Slope That I Like was on the back side, and front side was much more steep).

Thursday, 12 March
Day 5 – Meredith Gray in Chamonix

The next day the fever blisters were worse, and Sharon and I were both out of medicine for them. Emmanuel felt bad for us and decided to skip skiing to hang out with Sharon because she was really upset about the blisters (although I think mine looked much worse than hers, especially after skiing again the day before). So Sharon and I walk into the pharmacy and get the pharmacist’s attention to ask what we need. The pharmacist actually jumped back when she saw our lips. She told us that we needed something much more serious than she could sell us; we needed to see a doctor, and she made an appointment for us to see one across the street. We went in together, and the doctor reminded me of Meredith Gray on Gray’s Anatomy; she was really young, teensy-tiny and beautiful. She poked the hell out of our mouths and had absolutely no bedside manner. She finally wrote us a prescription, which we filled back at the pharmacy and then went back to the chalet to hide in misery once more.

Andrew had a blast that day, though. He went to a different slope – Mont Blanc – and risked his life several times, but had fun doing it!

That night was Bridgette and Melissa’s day off from cooking for us, so we went out to a restaurant in the city of Chamonix, but we came back early so that we could get up for a full day of skiing the next day. It would be our last day of skiing for the trip.

Friday, 13 March
Day 6 – Après Ski Delight

Despite the fever blisters and sun burn, I couldn’t pass up our last day of skiing. I came out loaded down with all my prescription medication in a backpack stored carefully on Andrew’s back, and we spent the day skiing together. By the end of that day, I was back to feeling like a natural again, though without the confidence of day one since I looked like I’d been kissing a toad. We skied and skied and skied, and it was lovely.

Then afterward, we dropped off our skis and went to the bar for what the French call après ski, which just means “after ski”.

It’s basically Happy Hour and lasts from about four or five to seven or eight in the evening. It got SO crowded that it was one-in/one-out; there was a great band playing, and we had a wonderful time.

Most of those who had skipped skiing for the day came out to the bar, and we partied till we were called home for dinner. Bridgette and Melissa had made us a Mexican fiesta, complete with tequila shooters to toast to a great trip!

We toasted and ate and drank, hung out in the hot tub and played Uno and various versions of Rummy, and drifted off to a peaceful sleep before flying home the next day.

SNOW!

So last week Andrew looked at the weather and noticed that we were supposed to have heavy snow on Tuesday of this week. Over the weekend, they moved it up to today, but it began snowing last night. It didn't stop. When we went to bed, there were already two inches of snow on our balcony and a thin coating over everything in our back garden.

So this morning I got up at 7:45am to get ready for work. It was still snowing! We measured again. See for yourself.

Wow!! Most of the Tube lines were suspended, and all the buses were suspended, as well. Now it's after 6pm, and it is STILL snowing, believe it or not.

Heaviest snow in 20 years brings large parts of Britain to a halt
Article from the TimesOnline

The heaviest snowfall in 20 years has closed thousands of schools and caused transport chaos up the eastern side of Britain, with London and the surrounding areas the hardest hit.

Six million bus passengers were left in the lurch as all London's bus services were halted because of dangerous driving conditions, and every Tube line except the Victoria line was at least partially suspended.

Many mainline commuter rail services were also cancelled or seriously delayed, and flights at London's airports were decimated, with both of Heathrow's runways shut, Luton and London City closed, and Gatwick and Stansted flights subject to delays and short-notice cancellations.

Millions of commuters stayed at home rather than brave the conditions, as an estimated one in five people either worked from home or took the day off, costing industry hundreds of millions of pounds.

Meanwhile Westminster council in central London issued a statement that many of its schools would remain closed because too many teachers could not get to work, a message echoed by schools in Kent, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Birmingham, and West and North Yorkshire. In Surrey, every school was shut.

Many courts were closed as lawyers, witnesses and jurors were unable to turn up, and London Ambulance Service said it would only respond to “life-threatening calls” as the heavy snow and wintry weather meant it was under “severe pressure” and had received more than 650 calls between midnight and 7am today.

The South East of England and the Pennines bore the brunt of the snowfall which began yesterday afternoon, with some of the hardest-hit areas reporting up to 1ft of snow. By the morning the heavy showers had extended as far north as southern Scotland.

Forecasters are predicting that during the rest of the day and tomorrow the snow will continue to extend northwards and westwards across the UK, with a wave of even heavier falls due to reach Britain on easterly winds this afternoon.

"The South West has escaped the worst of the snow, but we could see another 10cm in Greater London over the next 24 hours, and even more than that in Yorkshire and the Pennines," said a spokeswoman for the Meteo forecasting group.

A spokesman for Transport for London said: "Heavy snowfall across the London area last night has severely disrupted transport services and further snow is forecast throughout Monday. The advice is to check before you travel, expect disruption and if your journey is necessary then allow more time for your journey.

"The biggest difficulty today is the road conditions which are extremely dangerous and drivers should take extreme care."

He added that bus services had been suspended because of fears for passenger safety.

A number of train services linking London and the south coast were also delayed or cancelled as snow drifted on to the tracks. Southern, which operates rail commuter routes from the south coast, including the Brighton line, into Victoria was forced to reduce its service on all routes to just one or two trains an hour.

Southeastern, the UK’s busiest commuter operator, was forced to cancel all services into London with no trains running into Cannon Street, Charing Cross and parts of London Bridge and Victoria stations.

South West Trains, which operates local and long distance routes into London Waterloo, suffered a much reduced service. A spokeswoman said: "We advise passengers not to travel unless their journey is absolutely necessary."

Firms in London started contacting staff this morning telling them not to even attempt to travel into the capital.

In central London cars crawled along the icy streets to avoid accidents, and in areas outside the centre there was an eerie quiet as many drivers avoided the dangerous conditions altogether, warned by roads agencies to cancel all but essential journeys.

The Highways Agency said around 500 gritters had worked through the night to clear major roads in time for the morning rush hour, but even so there had been too many minor accidents on the roads to put a number on.

"We have 600 patrols out on the motorways to help drivers caught in the snow, plus another 500 gritters working through the night. It’s certainly been a busy night," said the spokesman.

Some lanes on the M25 around London were blocked by snow and a section of the southbound A1M near Stevenage, Hertfordshire was closed between junctions 7 and 6 due to a jack-knifed truck. A junction of the London-bound M20 in Kent that was temporarily shut due to the treacherous conditions has now reopened. The London-bound M3 in Hampshire was down to one lane this morning.

Part of the M5 northbound near Tewkesbury was briefly closed after a car went into a spin and crashed into the central reservation, causing a multi-vehicle pile up.

A spokeswoman for navigation firm TomTom said that a total of 1,086 miles of traffic jams had formed around the country. The longest queue was 32 miles on the M25, between junction 19 at Watford and junction 8 at Reigate, at 7.30am, she said.

By 8am there were delays of one hour and 27 minutes between junction 11 on the M27 at Fareham, Hampshire, and the M3 interchange.

Brighton and Hove Bus Company said the heavy snow meant it was unable to operate any bus route in East Sussex, explaining: "We are doing all we can to commence services, but at present the roads are still too treacherous."

Police requested the closure of the A66 between Brough and Stainmore Summit on the Cumbria/Durham border from 1.35am today because of the weather conditions. A Highways Agency spokesperson said it was likely to remain closed throughout the day.

Slow traffic was reported on the M6 around and north of Carlisle. In Greater Manchester, two lanes of the M62 westbound between junctions 22 and 21 at Milnrow were shut overnight but reopened in time for the rush hour.

The AA have warned motorists to ensure they keep warm clothes in the car. Andy Taylor, AA Patrol of the Year, said: "If you break down on a motorway, the safety advice is to get out of the car and wait behind the barrier. Unless you have extra clothes you really are flirting with hypothermia."

Flight passengers were advised to check with their airline before leaving for the airport, after BAA reported that both Heathrow's runways were a shut, causing more than 250 flight cancellations.

A spokesman added that while Gatwick Airport had reopened, there were significant delays and cancellations. Ryanair was handing out leaflets at Stansted warning that more than 70 flights had been cancelled. Southampton airport was shut this morning, but BAA said it hoped to reopen it later.

Gatwick Airport and London City Airport were both temporarily shut last night as their runways were de-iced. BAA said the runway at Gatwick Airport reopened after several hours, while it was cleared in time for the first departures of the day.

Blue Monday (article from the Daily Mail)

"If you are feeling a little down then you can take solace in the thought that things are unlikely to get any worse.

Today, say experts, is the unhappiest day in the entire year.

Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year's resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.

But if anyone can cope with 'blue Monday' it is the British, who researchers have found to be mainly optimists.

More than 85 per cent of us expect the future to be happier than it is now, according to researchers.

Dr Cliff Arnall, a Cardiff University psychologist, devised the formula that shows today is the most depressing.

His equation takes into account six factors: weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing our new year's resolutions, low motivational levels and the feeling of a need to take action.

Taken together they pinpoint today as 'Blue Monday'.

Dr Arnall said that by understanding the main factors for depression we can prevent becoming unhappy next year.

He said: 'Use the day as a springboard for a higher quality life. For example, keeping Christmas spending to a strict budget next year will make you less depressed in the last week of January.

'Also, decide on changing behaviour, such as giving up smoking, eating better, exercising more and getting that new job.'

It might also be a good idea to take extra care on the roads.

Research by Privilege Insurance reveals that nearly half of the UK's drivers suffer from seasonal symptoms such as depression and lethargy in January, which impact on their driving ability.

All is not doom and gloom, however, as a survey of 85 per cent of people in Britain expect to be happier in the future than they are now, a psychological study for Standard Life Bank found.

Scots were the most optimistic, followed by people in the South West, while people from London and the West Midlands had the least positive outlook on life, researchers discovered.

Taking up a new hobby is the most favoured tactic by Britons to become happier in 2007, amid a general trend for people wanting to make work less of a focus in 2007.

People responding to the survey said they hoped to make themselves happier by clearing their debts, paying off their mortgage and achieving financial security.

Those who listed things they were looking forward to were plans to reduce their working hours or retire to improve their quality of life.

The research - entitled the Freestyle Happiness Index - also found that the nation's optimism is being boosted by a falling interest in material possessions.

For the 15 per cent of pessimists and those who feel very depressed, the Samaritans urged people not to bottle it up but to get in touch.

Press spokesperson Kate Redway said: 'Sadly, one in five people in the UK experience depression and this time of year can be particularly difficult, with people in debt after Christmas and finding it hard to settle back into a work routine during dark days.'"

Copied from the Daily Mail

Ice-skating at Somerset House

Every winter Andrew and I have carried on our dear friends the Beard's tradition of ice-skating at a different venue in London. Our first year we went with the Beards and the Triefenbachs to ice-skate at the Tower of London. Last year we went with the Noris to ice-skate at Hyde Park Corner's Winter Wonderland. This year, no one came with us, but we went and had a great time anyway at Somerset House, which is rumoured to be the most picturesque ice-skating venue in London...

St Albans!

Last week I had a little down time while I was waiting for a proof to come in, so I decided to look into some quick day trips from London. I quickly found St Albans, which is a small village just 20 minutes outside of London, and sent out an email asking whether anyone wanted to join us. There isn't much to do in St Albans, especially on a day when it's below freezing outside (literally). However, there are a lot of dog-friendly pubs around the city, so we took the dogs and two other couples—the Frasers and the McGuigans—and took the train up there around mid-day this past Saturday.

When we arrived, the first thing we wanted to do was grab some lunch and a pint. The first dog-friendly pub I had on my list was Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which claims to be the oldest pub in England and holds the Guinness World Record for it. We had hot chocolate with Bailey's in it and good food. The pub was a bit disappointing in that it was playing a mix of new hits and club music, which seemed weird for one that claims to be the oldest in England, and it was so cold! There were some areas that had fires, but we were apparently near an open door and were quite chilly as we ate. The food was really good, though. I think everyone was pleased.

When we walked out we discovered, to our dismay, that it was snowing. Yes, snowing. Then we walked through a gate into a field to find the remains of a Roman Wall, and walked right onto a huge frozen pond. Frozen solid!! There were people ice-skating on it!! I still can't get over that. In all my years in Alabama, I don't think I've ever seen a pond frozen completely solid enough that you could walk and ice-skate on it. We walked on the pond for a bit (I let Hadley pull me along by her lead), looked for a dead bird that was frozen into the ice somewhere in the pond about which everyone around was talking, realised that we were freezing and didn't have time to find said dead bird, and made our way across to the Roman Wall. The Roman Wall is just one small section of the two-mile long wall built between AD 265 and 270 to defend the Roman city of Verulamium. Most of the old Roman stone was "robbed out" for subsequnet building projects, principally the Cathedral. The main section of the Roman wall in Verulamium Park is enclosed by a fence.

After that we realised that it was getting dark, so the only other thing we (well, I) really wanted to see was the remains of Sopwell Nunnery. The nunnery ruins are set far enough away from the road to feel secluded and, yet, weren't hard to find. We arrived at the perfect time; the last people wandering around were just leaving, so we were free to roam around freely and take pictures unhindered by strangers. The remains have a rather mystical and eerie quality; there was a light fog that added to atmosphere. The fact that the local authorities keep the land around it naturally overgrown gives the effect of stumbling across some previously undiscovered ruins.

The original nunnery dates back to 1140 and was built by Geoffrey de Gorham, the abbot of St Albans. In the 1500s it became part of Sir Richard Lee’s Tudor mansion, but the nunnery seems to be the only surviving building. There is enough of it left to provide an idea of the size and layout.

The nunnery was by far my favourite part of our trip to St Albans.

By the time we finished at the nunnery, we were near frozen. We really couldn't feel our fingers and toes, and it was starting to grow dark, so we made our way to another pub called The Goat.

I had seen online that they had board games available to play at the bar, so I figured that would be a good place to wind down and finish the day. We ordered our pints and played Scrabble. Sharon beat the poop out of the rest of us, and when we were finished, we made our way back to the train station and headed home to London to thaw out with some hot and spicy Thai food from the Churchill Arms, our favourite Thai pub.

I know, I know. We went on a day trip and only saw two things and two pubs! We didn't arrive there until around 1pm, and it gets dark around 3:30 or 4pm, so we didn't have much time. Plus, you just don't understand how cold it was!! To be honest, I didn't even really pay attention to the weather forecast when I planned this trip; I just wanted to go somewhere that the dogs would enjoy. I should have planned a trip SOUTH of London, rather than North. Oh, well. It was a lovely day anyway.