Leeds

After our weekend in Bath we were pretty tired and took the week quite easy.
Once again we had another weekend away planned. This time it was to Leeds, about 2 hours north by train. We had an early train on Saturday, which was a challenge. We planned on having a quiet one on Friday night, but as often seems to happen, a few beers turns into a few more! The hostel was almost full tonight, with a few people checking in for the weekend.
After a late night we were up early, to take a bus to Kings Cross train station (once again the tube is not running!). We allowed plenty of time to get a bus which was lucky, as we waited about 25 minutes in the rain for a bus that is meant to be every 10 minutes, ugh London…

Our accommodation in Leeds was the Met hotel, apparently there are no hostels in Leeds. It was reasonably priced, and actually quite nice. A big old red brick building. Many of the buildings in Leeds are nice old red brick, a nicer city than london’s monotonous gray! We arrived fairly early but were able to check in which was handy and the guy at the desk gave us some tips on restaurants around town. We dropped our bags and went for a look around town. There is not a lot on the tourist trail here, a couple of public squares, old buildings and art galleries. There is a lot of shopping, which is what we spent the afternoon doing. We also looked at the Henry Moore Gallery, which sadly did not have any Henry Moore in it (one of Christine’s favorites), in fact all it did have was some white walls with pencils lines on it. Not very interesting or artistic!

After a rest back at the hotel, still recovering from last night, we headed out for dinner. We went to a steak house that the guy at reception talked up, I had been looking forward to this steak all day. When we got there we found out that without a reservation it was going to be a 3 hour wait for a table! Maybe in future they should also recommend making a booking! We then wandered around aimlessly for about an hour looking for somewhere to eat. Ended up just eating back near the hotel. Worked out ok, the waitress was nice, service was slow and the manager ended up giving us a discount because the kitchen had taken so long. Heading back to our room we watched a bit of the winter Olympics, which surprisingly hasn’t had a lot of attention over here. Maybe something to do with how bad England is doing, I think Australia even has more gold medals!
Sunday morning we had a bit of a sleep in and a massive breakfast at the hotel. We then headed to the Leeds Art Gallery. This was much better, quite a lot of different works and styles. We also walked around town a bit more and along the river. Then it was back to the train station in the afternoon for the ride back to London.

Bath and Stonehenge

This week has been quite nice and quite relaxed! After getting back from our snow trip on Sunday, we rested and had a sleep in Monday! We spent the afternoon doing a bit of sightseeing, heading to the Portrait Gallery and an underground crypt for coffee (converted to a cafe).
The next two days Christine worked a day and a half at the hostel where we are staying (currently school holidays). Its another one of these London jobs that only hires girls! I spent a bit of time starting to look for another job, but not looking promising, given I need 2 weeks off in April! I also did a 2 day Team Teach course through one of Christine’s agencies, and hope to get some school admin or teaching assistant work once the term gets started.

Happy Birthday Christine!
Thursday was Christine’s birthday. She had a nice relaxing day at home during the day and a bottle of wine in the afternoon. We then headed down the street for dinner to a Chinese restaurant for some Peking Duck. It was nice, but not quite the same as the duck in China, or even Melbourne! After a quick beer at the local pub, where one of the girls was working, we headed back home for dessert, Mel had made cup cakes and I bought a chocolate cake!



After another cruisy day on Friday, we jumped on a train Friday night headed for Bath. Mel from the hostel joined us and we met Julia at the train station. Two other girls came as well, Sarah from the hostel was on an earlier train and Amy came down the following day.
Saturday we spent most of the day wandering around the town, not doing a great deal. We were too late for the guided walking tour and the Stonehenge tour was booked out. Lunch in a pub, some more walking, a nap in the afternoon and then dinner at a Thai restaurant. After dinner we hit the town, heading to a local pub and then a bit more of a bar/nightclub.
Sunday was a bit more eventful. Sarah and I were up in time for the walking tour which took us all around town including the royal crescent and the circus. The tour was free and the guide was great, with many stories about the different buildings and parts of town.
After the tour we met up with the others in a café for a quick lunch and then it was time for our tour to Stonehenge. The drive was probably a bit under an hour, but was quite nice to get out and see the countryside and rolling hills. When you get there you can walk around the stones, but never get any closer than about 50m. It is your typical tourist trap, yes the stones are cool, but a bit overrated, and at the end there is a gift shop. Christine enjoyed it, and since this was her birthday present, that is a good thing!
After Stonehenge we stopped off in a small village, Lacock. It is a very old place and the whole village is National Heritage Listed, so it looks like all the buildings are about to fall down! The highlight was the pub, and seeing some of the local houses which have been used in the filming of many movies, including good ol’ Harry Potter.
After the tour we headed to another pub for drinks and dinner while waiting for our train back to London. We had a good weekend, although the town was so busy, even at this time of year. We didn’t make it to the roman baths or the thermal pools for a swim, mainly due to the massive line that wrapped around the building when we had hoped to go in.

Chamonix - French Alps

The weekend before we headed off to the snow was going to be quiet and getting a bit organized for the week away. It didn’t really turn out that way! We were pretty lazy on Saturday, not doing much other than bit of a walk and having lunch at a café where one of our friends was working, in Notting Hill. Again Sunday morning was quite a lazy morning. For lunch we were meeting Julia near Covent Garden. She was running a bit late, so we ended up having a bit of a look around some shops and at China town. We then settled into a pub for a few hours to have drinks and some lunch.
Mel from the hostel joined us later in the afternoon, and the four of us headed to a theater to see Stomp. This was a bit different, but very good. It only had about 8 performers in it, barely any dialogue, just music and noise. It was all dance and music, made from all sorts of household items. They used everything from brooms, match boxes, bin and bin lids, basketballs and cigarette lighters. It was also a bit of a comedy, with the characters adding in subtle jokes, despite the lack of dialogue. After the show the four of us couldn’t stop tapping our feet and making our own beats!

The following week we only had four days left of work, which went quickly. A combination of organizing things for the week away, organizing our work agencies for when we get back and a few nights out with Brendan (Christine Brother). Finally Friday came round, we spent most of the day rushing around and packing our room. By the time the afternoon came around, we were ready to get on the bus for the 17hr trip across the channel to France.
Our trip was amazing! The town of Chamonix is beautiful, set in a valley surrounded by huge mountains, as you would expect in the French Alps. We were very lucky with the weather and I am looking a little bit tanned now which is nice for a change. We had 3 clear days and light snow for the rest of the time which meant falling was not so painful. It was fascinating to have perfectly formed individual snowflakes falling on us and see the beautiful patterns. I was very cold (-17 Celsius and sunny one afternoon) which meant the snow stayed frozen and powdery. One of the girls we met commented that the landscape looked just like a Christmas card, and it did! It would be lovely to go back in spring or summer to see how different everything looks.

As for our snowboarding prowess.... we were both able to take drag lifts and chair lifts without much fuss by the end of the week (see videos at bottom of page). This was thanks to our wonderful instructors, Emilie and Behonje (pic on left). They were both from the UCPA, which is the place that we stayed at, both very good boarders, amd most importantly, very very patient! We could turn, jump and spin on green slopes and had stopped falling over so much. I loved the fact that I could see Damien from a mile away due to the fact that his outfit was royal blue from top to bottom and his huge arm span which made him look like a giant sliding blue cross.

Then we hit the blue slopes and the falling began again (Face-plant Christine).

I think one of the funniest things was when I was trying to dodge Damien who was dumfounded by the fact that we had a drag lift running across the rather flat blue run we were doing. The fact that the run was flat meant that you really needed a bit of speed, which I did have but due to Damien and some other people being stumped by the drag lift crossing and hence blocking the road, I just about lost. What made matters worse for me was that shortly after the drag lift, which I nailed, there was a red run which also crossed our blue run. At this time I was going very slowly so it was the slope that dictated where I went rather that me by shifting my weight. That was when I started going down the red run! One of our mates started yelling at me that that was the wrong was so I did the only thing I could to try and stop myself which was to fall over. Unfortunately the slope was too steep and I kept on sliding, which was funny at first, then I tried to dig in my board, but kept sliding, so then I was on my back, upside down, moving a bit too quickly for my liking which was funny but a bit disconcerting. Somehow I managed to stop myself but then spent about 10 minutes trying to climb a slope that had only taken me a matter of seconds to come down. It was pretty steep! Our friend Mark was sitting at the top of the slope laughing at me, particularly when I slid half way back down the slope.

The food was really good and we both think we have stretched our stomachs, which was ok when we were on the slopes for 8 hours a day. 3 course buffet dinner every night, as well as breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea! Now that we are back in London I'm going to have to cut back, a lot! We shared a room with two girls from Glasgow who were both very nice. We will probably visit them at the end of March or maybe after mum goes home. The night life in Chamonix is also awesome, although most nights we were too exhausted to make it out. We did head out one night to see an ice hockey game and out for a big night in the pubs and clubs.

We arrived back in London Sunday around noon and discovered there were still pancakes left over from breakfast! This was very exciting as I love pancake day! And then it got even better as I discovered a package from Vermont South and a card from Nell! I am not allowed to open them yet, but I have just read an email saying I should.....
This morning I got another package, this time from Glen Waverley so now I am very excited about turing 29, even though that sounds a bit too close to 30.

It is half term at the moment so I am not teaching but have picked up a couple of days work at the hostel. This is good because Damien can justify my manic cleaning if I am being paid for it. It also means I can pay for this weeks rent without digging into our (English) savings which we are trying to ear mark for various trips including snowboarding again next year.

It is shaping up to be a very busy year! We have something on every weekend until mum arrives in Paris and keep thinking of other things we can do. I have work lined up for the next month at a special school, which should help pay for some of our travel and hopefully Damien picks up some new work this week.