have geek toys, will travel

For our last day in the UK, Richard and I decided to head back out to Greenwich to actually visit the Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory. No pictures of the exhibits, because we were feeling a bit camera-weary, although we did take some outside shots because the weather was a bit nicer today than yesterday. The Maritime Museum was great, a whole variety of things related to ships, navigation, and exploration. The Royal Observatory was also quite cool, although the planetarium show wasn't really worth the £6 ticket cost -- such a tiny planetarium compared to Vancouver's, and the show itself was pretty mediocre (Richard fell asleep for part of it, if that says anything). Then back to home-from-home for around 6:00, Rich got home not long after we did (he'd been back at his university for the last while, re-writing a bunch of exams), and we had a good dinner and chat with Rich and David before coming back downstairs to get mostly packed up, and now off to bed for 7.5 hours of sleep. Up at 6:00am tomorrow so we can be out of the house by 7:20 and at the airport by 9:30...cheerio, Britain!

No photos from Monday at the Notting Hill Carnival, because neither Richard nor I wanted to bother keeping track of the camera.

Day 32 - Natural History Museum - #145 to #148
Natural History Museum from outside, dinosaurs, kryptonite

Day 33 - Mornington Crescent - #149 to #160
Covent Garden, Marble Arch, Cutty Sark/Greenwich (Royal Observatory, Maritime Museum, the Prime Meridian), Waterloo & City line, Mornington Crescent

Today Richard and I decided, after having an unhurried by not totally lazy beginning of the morning, to go get on the Tube and explore London randomly, in vaguely Mornington Crescent style. Vaguely, that is, in that we would take turns picking a destination station, and the first one of us to get tired would call "Mornington Crescent" and we would need to head there before going home. Mornington Crescent as a cooperative game, perhaps...

( Mornington Crescent, Dorichard style )

Had a bit of a lie-in today, which felt really good after how exhausted I was by the end of the day yesterday. The Reduced Brothers Lau (Alvin flew home first thing this morning) left around 9:45 to go in search of tickets for Wicked, then Richard and I headed out some time after 11:00. Our first stop was Sainsbury's for some lunch food, then the Natural History Museum. We met up with Erica (from the choir), saw the dinosaur gallery, ate our lunches, met up with Aaron and Anders, saw a bunch of other parts of the museum (not the whole thing, though -- mammals, creepy-crawlies, birds, some geology sort of stuff), and headed out around 5:00.

Took the Tube to Victoria, where the other three were set to see Wicked tonight and we had a buy-one-get-one-for-£1 voucher for an Italian place nearby. Richard and I popped into the theatre where Billy Elliot is playing and bought £25 front-row neck-craning tickets for tonight, then the five of us went for dinner, where our food was tasty, plentiful, and with the coupon worked out to a cost of £6 per person including tip (score!). Then we got some dessert from Sainsbury's, ate it standing on the sidewalk, and parted ways to our two different shows.

Richard and my seats for Billy Elliot were front row, far left, slightly limited view (couldn't see the actors' feet if they were mid-stage or back, a bit of a pain in a dancing show but oh well), but the show was fabulous and I really enjoyed it. I'm definitely at the stage in this trip where I'm thinking about the fact that £25 each was almost $100 total, which is quite a lot of groceries when we get home...but it was worth it. No more shows in our last two days, though, I think, even though there's at least one musical that we were thinking would be fun to see, and a play at Shakespeare's Globe is always good fun too. Le sigh...

Sunday was a lazy sort of day, I sat around with Harrison and Holly in their living room all morning, then when Holly left for work just before noon I got ready to go, and then had lunch at Starbucks with Harrison before catching my train back to London. Spent a chill evening once I got back to Rich's house, had a good dinner with Jan, David, Richard, and the Brothers Lau, drank too much wine and stayed up too late talking.

Today we went to the Notting Hill Carnival (London's big Caribbean festival). I watched parade floats, danced to music, and ate curry goat and deep-fried plantain. Good times. Then over to Leicester Square, out for dinner at a pub, and Richard, the Laus, and I went to see Avenue Q, which was hilarious. And that's the day in brief! There won't be any pictures, because I didn't want to bother keeping the camera safe.

Day 27 - Oxford (Botanic Gardens, mostly) - #127 to #136
Flower with bee, flower, Richard and giant citrus fruit, flowers, Oxford is pretty (Magdalen College in the background, I think), lilies, Botanic Gardens, flowers I almost didn't notice, Sarabande's informal concert for the Eton Choral Course singers, Pembroke College (dining hall in the middle of the shot)

Day 29 - Nottingham (well, the photos are from Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire) - #137 to #144
part of the larger ruined castle from the outside, lunette wall/ceiling painting inside the Little Castle, wall panelling (restored), ceiling detail (would have had a chandelier hanging from it), gorgeous ceiling, view out a window in the ruined larger castle, more of the larger castle with the Little Castle in the middle, model of Bolsover Castle

Today has been very good. Slept in until 10:00, which was excellent except for the nasty dream I had right toward the end, in which I was a student teacher again (although in different circumstances) and my class were being absolutely horrid. Showered, had breakfast (chocolatey wholegrain cheerios, and a soy london fog because Harrison did a morning Starbucks run), and sent some emails, by which point it was about noon.

Harrison and I dropped Holly off downtown to meet up with a friend, and then we drove out to Bolsover Castle. Got there just in time to catch a fabulous hour-and-a-half tour of the Little Castle by two historians who do tours basically for the fun of it, and because they love Bolsover Castle. After that, wandered around the rest of the castle for a little while, not hugely long though because it was cold and windy and we were hungry.

Headed back towards Nottingham, stopping at a service station (over here, that isn't just another term for a gas station, but for a place with food and toilets and a couple of shops that's right off a motorway) for fish and chips (which were surprisingly palateable) and some sweets from WH Smith. I had a bit of an eyes-bigger-than-stomach moment at the pick n' mix, and ended up with way more than I was able to eat on the drive back (fudge, chocolate-covered toffee, strawberry gummies, little sour straws, and a gummy snake). Back to the house, Holly was home from hanging out with her friend, and we all chatted a bit and then put on Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (again the extended edition, of course). What an excellent way to spend an evening. :) Now Harrison is making pasta sauce for us to have a late supper, and it smells excellent, while Holly and I putter on computers and finish watching Two Towers.

I've definitely been travelling for a while, as I've reached the point where I'm extremely happy to spend a couple of hours exploring an old castle, and then come back and spend the evening blodging with my computer and a movie. Of course, now that I've watched the first two LotRs I'm going to want to watch Return of the King (extended edition), but I don't think I'll get a chance until I get home, unless I either stay up super-late or wake up early tomorrow just to watch it before I head back to London! Although, really, if I was going to stay up until 2:00am watching things on DVD, now would be the time to do it, just old times' sake. It was, after all, staying with Harrison the first time that I marathon-watched all of Firefly (plus several episode commentaries) in two and a half days.

Current Mood: geeky

Uneventful day today. Said goodbye to Richard and to the choir folks, and caught a 10:00am train to Nottingham. Arrived around 1:00pm, Harrison picked me up from the station. Back to his and Holly's house after a detour to Starbucks to give Holly a chance to finish tidying up the house, or perhaps showering and getting her hair done. :) Hung around for a bit, then went into town for a snack at Caffe Nero before Holly had to go in for her shift at work. Harrison and I walked around a bit, then went back to the car and back to the house. I put laundry in, and we started up watching The Fellowship of the Ring (the extended edition, of course). That's pretty much been the evening, LotR and me periodically checking my laundry in the dryer (yay dryer!). Holly will be back from work around 10:30, with sushi for our late dinner (she works at a sushi restaurant, and gets a 50% discount on food from there). The weather's supposed to be decent tomorrow, which means I need to figure out at some point tonight or in the morning where to go exploring for the day. Stay tuned tomorrow to hear about what I end up deciding, or whether Harrison and I simply end up getting in his car (Holly apparently has things to do tomorrow and won't be joining us) and driving randomly out of the city!

Got to sleep in this morning, didn't get up until 9:30 or so, after Richard had eaten breakfast with the choir and come back to shower and dress, and didn't shower until he'd left for their 10:00am rehearsal. Showered, dressed, and had a nice breakfast of yogurt, croissant, and berries. By the time I was finishing that, rehearsal was over and Richard et al. came back to the dorm. Hung around for a bit, then Richard, Aaron, Alvin, and I went off to the Botanic Gardens. It was nice out, a mix of sun and cloud and clearing up, so we figured it would be a good idea to take advantage of the weather.

Bought some food along the way and had a picnic inside the gardens, then spent a couple of hours exploring. Very pleasant. They're not huge gardens, but they're very nice. A few glasshouses, a bunch of plant beds organised by classification, a water garden... Also an English Yew tree that was planted in 1645! Left the gardens around 3:00, and went for a wander through the Covered Market with its assorted little shops, and then through Blackwell's Books. Went back to Pembroke around 5:00 to rest for a bit and change before the choir was due to meet up at 6:00 and go to Queen's College to sing a short concert for the Eton Choral Course participants and then have dinner with them. I tagged along, took a bunch of photos of the choir singing, and insinuated myself into the dinner.

Now we're back at Pembroke, and Richard and I are sitting in his room updating our respective blogs. In a bit a big group of choir people is going out to a pub (or two, if there's not enough space for everyone in one pub) for the evening, which means we should probably pack a bit before leaving, as we're off in our respective directions bright and early tomorrow morning (the choir to Winchester for their last three days, and me to Nottingham to visit with Harrison and Holly).

[edit, the next morning]
Last night about a dozen of us (including me, and also Colin the bus driver) ended up at a pub called Chequers. They brought us free samples of Magners pear cider. Free pint-glass-mostly-full samples, that is. I drank two and a half pints of cider in less than two hours, and it made me very loud and rather silly. In another half-pint or so, or course, I would have fallen asleep. A lot of jokes were told (some of them were very corny). Then back to the dorm just after 11:00 when the pub closed (except for some people who went out to a club), where Richard and I made creditable efforts at packing despite our tipsy states, and I determined that I was still sober enough to type with reasonable accuracy.

More photos from the last few days. File directory here, or click the link for the first photo from each day and then change the URL manually to move to the next ones.

Day 23 - Dan Yr Ogof caves - #113 to #115
Various rock formations in the caves

Day 24 - Bath and walking near Tintern - #116 to #120
Bath Abbey, stained glass inside the Abbey, ceiling inside the Abbey, Tintern Abbey, Tintern Abbey from across the River Wye

Day 26 - Oxford (Natural History Museum) - #121 #126
Dinosaur footprints make Richard feel inadequate, cheetah, insects (bee-oo-ti-ful butterfly!), RAWR T-REX, gypsum-sand "roses", OMG PLASTIC DINOSAUR HAS MY ARM

Today I began my two days of staying semi-illicitly in Richard's room in the Pembroke College dorm, where the choir is staying while they're in Oxford. It was easier for me to stay in the hostel last night because I arrived while the choir was having dinner before their concert (and because I couldn't get my money back for the first day if I cancelled the hostel booking a day in advance, but I could for the latter two days), but for tonight and Thursday night I'm staying with Richard. The bed is uncomfortable (more so with two in it, as we found when napping this afternoon), and of course I don't have a key of my own, but it's nice to be together and for me to be able to hang out with the choir folks as well as spend time with Richard.

Anyway, this morning I brought my stuff over to Pembroke from the hostel, then after a bit of waiting for people to get organised about half a dozen of us went off to visit the Natural History Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum. Both are very cool places. The Natural History Museum has things you can touch as well as in glass cases, and the Pitt Rivers has shrunken heads!

Left the museums around 1:00, and the group of us (me, Richard, Thomas, Anders, Alvin, and Aaron) went in search of food. I decided I really wanted noodles, and led the guys on a quest to the noodle place by the outdoor market. Veggie udon and green tea made me feel much less grumpy about the weather (chilly and rainy) for a while!

After lunch we all went back to the dorm and separated into our rooms to relax/nap. Met up with people again around 4:45, and walked over to Merton College where the Eton Choral Course kids were singing Evensong. (Note: the Eton Choral Course is really the reason the choir is in Oxford for a few days, as Mr. Pullan, their director, is doing a bunch of master classes for the singers attending the course.) That was quite nice, although it is rather humbling being the only non-singer surrounded by rather good choir people when it comes time for the hymn-singing part of the service. After Evensong, a big group of us went out for indian food at a place called Chutneys, which was excellent, and then Richard and I came back to the dorm via Sainsbury's to get me some food to eat for breakfast. Richard went to Aaron's room to play cards, and I followed along eventually with my laptop after deciding that I wasn't feeling quite antisocial enough to sit in his room alone on my computer. I am feeling antisocial enough to not want to play cards, though, so I'm on a chair in the corner while Richard, Aaron, Anders, Alvin, and Lynn play Set, with Wall-E playing on Aaron's laptop on in the background. Not a bad way to spend an evening, although I'm starting to feel like sleep might be a good idea...

Current Mood: sleepy

My Tuesday in Bristol was a bit lacklustre. I was tired from being up late doing laundry, and the weather wasn't the best. Did a bus tour, wandered a bit, had lunch, explored the covered market, then sat in Cafe Nero for an hour and a half reading.

Then back to Jon's office, he gave me a lift to the station, and I made my way to Oxford (Bristol to Oxford with two changes, whee). Checked in at the hostel, changed into jeans, and wandered off toward Christ Church for the choir's concert. Caved and had McYuck for dinner (they have a spicy veggie deli sandwich over here that's decent, but my fries were cold). Went over to Christ Church around 7:15, college porter wasn't letting anyone in until closer to 8:00, went and stood by the Meadow until 7:40, met up with May Wong (former choir member of Tower of London day fame) and a couple of her friends who were coming to the concert, and eventually got in.

Concert was wonderful (if attended almost exclusively by people who know the choir). I'm no good at being a critical audience, but I am good at enjoying their music. :) Out to a pub with everyone after, good times. Richard walked me back to the hostel around 11:00, and I went to bed, but not after regretting starting a friendly bit of conversation with my roommate who turned out very chatty!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Today was the first of my two day-trip days from Cardiff. Staying with Jon, but he's back to work (vs. Wednesday-Friday last week which he took off to hang out with me and drive me around random parts of Wales). Since he works in Bristol, I decided that it would be fun to tag along with him as he drove in to work this morning, then walk to the train station and get on a train to Bath (about 15 minutes away on the train, and £3.90 for a day return ticket with my railcard). Despite accidentally buying a single because I wasn't paying enough attention at the ticket machine, and needing to go to an actual ticket window to get it refunded and buy a day return instead, I managed to get on a train before 10:00am and make it to Bath in time for a 10:30am walking tour.

The tour was very good (a Mayor of Bath Honorary Guides free tour), we wandered past/through a bunch of different places and there were some good stories. One of the highlights was the description of many of the iconic Georgian terraces (such as the houses of the Royal Crescent and the Circus) as "Queen Anne in front, Sally Ann at the back" -- coming from the fact that the fronts of the rows are elegant and consistent, designed by the same well-known architect and built with quality stone, but the backs were designed by other random architects and built in a hodge-podge. The weather was a bit meh, a mix of cloud and drizzle with a bit of heavier rain right at the end, but the tour was definitely enjoyable.

After the tour, I spent a bit of time wandering around, finding a toilet and then a place to stand while I phoned Richard and talked to him for a bit, then I got a pasty and some tea and sat on some steps, under cover from the drizzle, to eat. After eating and sitting for a bit, I checked out the price of touring through the Roman baths heritage site, decided I was too cheap for the £11.50 admission, and went straight over to Bath Abbey (right next door) instead. It's a very nice church, with some gorgeous stained glass and ceilings, which I was actually able to take pictures of. It also has a little exhibition about the history of the successive religious buildings on the site, and the times in which they were built and existed, with some bits and pieces of architecture from older buildings on the site that have been unearthed. Definitely worth the donation of what random change I had (I think it was about 30p) at the door.

After the Abbey, did a bit more random wandering around, just puttering through the streets and the little market of random small shops in the old guildhall, and looking at the images of the Earth from Above open-air exhibition that are scattered around Bath at the moment. Then bought a snack, and sat on a bench in front of the Abbey to eat part of it before walking down to the station to catch a train back to Bristol. Totally coincidentally, arrived just in time for a train, found a seat and sat back to enjoy the rest of my snack (mmm, caramel chocolate shortbread). Had a bit of a mishap with my bottle of cherry coke (running for a train then trying to open a bottle of pop from your backpack less than ten minutes later was a bad idea), but nothing that a bit of wiping with TP, and washing my jeans tonight, couldn't cure. Back to Bristol, where the sun was out (grr) and I had a very pleasant walk from the train station to outside Jon's office, partially along the New Cut (a tidal channel created in the early 1800s) where I waited for him for a few minutes and then we got in his car and headed back to Cardiff.

Along the way, we took a detour to Tintern Abbey, where we parked the car and then walked down a bit to a bridge over the River Wye, then over the river to the English side and along a path through the woods on the other side for about half an hour, then half an hour back. The path was a bit muddy from recent rain, but the sky was clear and the evening not too cool, and it was really nice to walk through the forest for a while. Then back to Jon's, where he made pasta for dinner while I started some laundry and wrote emails and otherwise got things done on my computer, and we both puttered the rest of the evening away on our respective laptops. I'm now almost running out of puttering to do, but the second load of my laundry is still a while away from being dry so I'm waiting for it to finish, after which I still need to put it all away in its stuffsacks, re-mend my jeans (a corner of one of the pockets has ripped out, and I sewed it up this morning but washing has ripped it again), and pack up my big backpack before going to sleep. Tomorrow I and all my stuff are going into Bristol with Jon bright and early, and I'm going to see a bit of Bristol before catching a 4:00pm train towards Oxford.

Having uploaded new copies of all photos due to a bit of a naming kerfuffle, here's all the photos I have online, by day and with brief descriptions. For anyone following my trip album on Facebook, these are all the same photos as I have up there, so feel free to ignore. Directory listing of all the images is here, or click on the linked first image for each day and change the number before .jpg in the URL to get to the next one (apologies for the rough-and-ready navigation, I don't really have an easy way to do anything better unless you look at the Facebook album).

Day 1 - London - #1 to #8
Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, a Horse Guard (and Bloody Obvious sign), Nelson's Column, Richard and Jenn under the Canada Gate outside Buckingham Palace, squirrel and geese (including Canada Geese) in St. James's Park, Women of WWII memorial

Day 2 - London (Kew) - #9
Kew Gardens (1 photo of 646)

Day 4 - Edinburgh - #10 to #14
Inukshuk I made just short of the summit of Arthur's Seat (appearances aside, it was about a foot tall), view from the top of Arthur's Seat, Turje-Cooper totem pole in the doorway of some chapel ruins on our way down, chapel ruins, Holyrood Palace

Day 5 - Highlands - #15
Hamish the "genuine Highland man" (AKA Highland "hairy coo" bull)

Day 6 - Edinburgh - #16 and #17
Two angles of Edinburgh Castle

Day 8 - Dublin to Killarney - #18 to #23
Blarney Castle

Day 9 - Killarney to Ennis - #24 and #25
Dingle Peninsula

Day 10 - Ennis to Galway - #26 to #35
Moira Ruaidh's castle (Shamrockers storm the gate and then the castle itself), Poulnabrone portal dolmen and surrounding area, fairy ring, Cliffs of Moher (AKA Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride, No Levitating?, crazy Canadian moose @ Cliffs of Insanity, the Burren

Day 11 - Inis Mór - #36 to #41
Kitten on the road up Inis Mór, cliffs at Dun Aonghasa, Dun Aonghasa, No Telekinesis?

Day 12 - Inis Mór to Derry - #42 to #48
W.B. Yeats' grave, cannons on the Derry old city wall, car park that five years ago was the British army garrison of soldiers trying to control sectarian conflict, Bloody Sunday mural and memorial, Derry's secondhand war memorial, Tintin et Bijoux outside our hostel

Day 13 - Derry to Belfast - #49 to #59
Dunluce Castle outside walls from the car park, the inner castle, Giant's Causeway, tall side of the Giant's Causeway with Richard for scale, more Giant's Causeway, cool spotted moths @ Giant's Causeway, Giant's Causeway seen from cliffs above, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, view back toward land from the island at the other side of the bridge

Day 14 - Belfast to Dublin - #60 to #63
Protestant Oliver Cromwell mural (hero to them, villain to the Catholic Irish), Shankill Road decorated for marching season, "peace wall" between Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods, Monasterboice tower and cross

Day 15 - Dublin - #64 to #67
Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral, Jenn tries Guinness, Jenn reacts to Guinness, toucan Guinness advert

Day 17 - London (Tower of London etc.) - #68 to #80
Tower Bridge, Tower from the outside, inside the Tower where the Crown Jewels live, upper part of the White Tower, ravens, Tower Health & Safety, Tower from across the Thames, Tower Bridge from the South Bank, Southwark Cathedral, rigging of the Golden Hinde, lower part of the Golden Hinde, Shakespeare's Globe, Millennium Bridge

Day 19 - Wales (St. Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life) - #81 to #86
Ancient Celtic roundhouse, St. Teilo's Church, random farmhouse building, Wales' former smallest post office (left half of the building was a radio-repair workshop), dirty pig, "castle"

Day 20 - Wales ("exploring" south-west-ish Wales) - #87 to #94
Porthcawl (beach, mollusc, seaweed, cool rock formations, beach of cool rock formations, Jon tries to fly), Wossname Reservoir in Brecon Beacons National Park, sashimi

Day 21 - Wales (Carreg Cennen Castle, Talley Abbey, and driving through the Brecon Beacons) - #95 to #105
Carreg Cennen Castle x2, view from castle, Jon and I take photos of each other taking photos of each other in the castle (geeks, yes), curry and chips for lunch, Talley Abbey x2, llamas near the abbey, views from two sides of a pass in the Brecon Beacons, obligatory ribboning of Jon when we all got together for dinner

Day 22 - Wales (National Botanic Garden) - #106 to #112
flowers, glasshouse, garden grounds, green bananas in tropical house, lily, fountain

I had hopes of us finding somewhere reasonably dry to go walking today, but no luck. Instead, after a lazy sort of morning of doing not very much (they were watching West Wing, I spent a bunch of time on my computer), Sean and Aled and I piled into Aled's car to go visit the Dan-Yr-Ogof showcaves. Very, very cool. Rather, the caves themselves are very cool and the random plastic dinosaurs scattered through the grounds between the different parts of the caves are amusingly tacky.

Now I'm back at Aled and Sean's house, toodling away on the Internet while Sean and Aled watch late-series West Wing and I sit facing away from the TV and try not to listen. I am intending to watch that show some day...but at the rate it takes me to get around to watching TV shows, I probably actually will have mostly forgotten this episode by the time I get to season 7.

Eventually we're planning to go out for dinner to a good pub that S&A are fond of, possibly with other people, and then I'm back to Jon's for the night. Day trip to Bath from Bristol tomorrow, my first actual day of solo exploring all trip, which I'm looking forward to despite the fact that I'll need to get up ridiculously early to tag along with Jon to Bristol when he drives in the work in the morning.

Had quite a good sleep at Sean and Aled's last night, although a bit short after wanting to get stuff done on the computer before going to sleep. Woke up a bit before nine and showered, dressed, and went downstairs to have some cereal while toodling around on the Internet. Eventually all three of us were awake and showered, and Aled suggested that we go out for a proper breakfast, meeting up with the others and then heading out of town to explore some places he thought might be good to go. Met up with Hollison and had a great breakfast (more like brunch) at a good little cafe, Jon wasn't feeling great but joined us eventually. After breakfast (by which point it was almost 1:00pm), we all went back to Jon's where we said goodbye to Hollison as they needed to drive back to Nottingham for Holly to work this evening, and after a pit stop Sean, Jon, Aled, and I piled into Aled's car and headed out of town.

Our destination for the day (originally meant to be our first destination, but ended up being only) was the National Botanic Garden of Wales. A bit of a drive out from Cardiff, we arrived somewhat before 3:00. First thing we did was head for where a temporary stage was set up and there was a performance of Alice in Wonderland going on. Watched that for a little while and it wad good fun, then headed for the main glasshouse, which is done up as a 'mediterranean' climate with zones of plants from different parts of the world with that sort of climate. All sorts of cool plants, we spent more than an hour wandering around the paths inside, looking at the plants and taking vast quantities of photos. Finally left there and went to explore other parts of the gardens (including the gift shop, where I found a three-flag Welsh flags pin for my backpack). There's a really cool walled garden, done up 1/4 as a kitchen garden and 3/4 with more random plants (split into monocots and eudicots -as opposed to paleodicots, it seems, just "dicots" not being precise enough-, and I got to try and explain the distinction between mono- and dicots...Bio 11 was a long time ago!). Smallish tropical greenhouse in there as well. Eventually made our way out of the gardens around 6:20, realizing that we were the last people out as closing was at 6:00!

Dinner was next on the agenda, and Aled and Sean took us out to a very nice little place in Carmarthen where all four of us stuffed ourselves silly on very tasty food. One of those dinners involving arriving at the restaurant just before 7:00 and leaving after 9:00, with stomachs much fuller and pockets lighter. Good times. Then back towards Cardiff, dropped Jon off at home and Aled, Sean, and I headed back to their house for the night. A great day!

Started the day today a bit earlier and with more of a plan. Jon went to retrieve the car (it was raining and I'd left my raincoat in the car, not my brightest moment) while I had breakfast, and we were on the road by 10:30. Today's goal was definitely to explore Carreg Cennen Castle, so we headed out west and then northwest on the motorway, having attempted the scenic route yesterday. We drove through some pretty epic wet weather, but by the time we were getting off the motorway onto local roads closer to our destination, it was quite nice. We made a pit stop just before leaving the motorway, and Jon bought himself a glovebox atlas of Wales, definitely a good idea.

Found our way to Carreg Cennen Castle, and spent a good hour-ish wandering around, taking photos. There was even a passageway to a cave under the castle! Luckily Jon has a mini flashlight built into the back of his phone so we were able to make it down and back without mishap. We finished up at the castle about 1:30, then went for lunch at the pub in the village nearby. The village is called Trap (or possibly Trapp, depending on whether you believe our map book or the road signage), which prompted many exclamations of "it's a trap!" on my part whenever I saw a sign. Lunch was quite good, and we sat outside and enjoyed the weather, which was remaining nice.

After lunch we pulled out the map book and decided to head for Talley Abbey, not too far away. That was a great set of abbey ruins, and we spent a while wandering around and each taking all sorts of random photos. In addition to the abbey itself, there were all sorts of little plants growing between the stones of the walls, and three llamas in a field nearby.

Back in the car, map out again and we decided to have a look at a gold mine marked on the map. Unfortunately, we arrived just too late for the last tour of the mine itself, and £3+ seemed like a bit much just to see the mineyard, so back in the car to see if we could check out another castle before calling it a day and heading back to Cardiff to meet people for dinner. We didn't actually manage to find the castle, though, so instead just headed back to Cardiff through the Brecon Beacons, a different way from yesterday but equally pretty and today the weather was better for scenic vistas. Made a couple of stops at viewpoints to enjoy the view and for me to take photos. At one of them I found a slug (right beside me as I got out of the car!) and briefly terrorised Jon with it, because I am a horrible little child.

Back to Cardiff with just enough time to stop in at Jon's for a few minutes before heading back out to walk across the park to the pub where we were due to meet up with people (Harrison and Holly, now dubbed "Hollison", and Sean and Aled) for dinner and drinks around 7:00pm. Jon and I were on time, which was a silly move on our part, because everyone else was more than half an hour late. But before 8:00 we were all there, and we had a great time. Of course, at one point I produced from my pocket the jaunty red ribbon which I'd made a point of bringing from home for a very specific purpose...that being tying a bow in Jon's hair and taking a photo. He really is a good sport about that particularly ridiculous tradition. By the time we got around to trying to order dessert, they'd stopped serving food (at 9:45, WTF), so we all piled into cars and went to Tesco, where we acquired a variety of dessert-type items and brought them back to Jon's. Apple pie, gooey chocolate cakey wossname, ice cream, custard, and heavy cream...yum. Even with six of us all that did not get finished! But we continued to have a great time sitting around Jon's living room eating and talking and laughing.

Around half-past midnight we decided it was probably time to call it a night, and eventually (it took us a while to actually get going) I went home with Sean and Aled, and I'll be staying with them tonight until Sunday evening, when I'll go back to Jon's until Tuesday. Tomorrow myself, Sean, Aled, Jon, and probably Harrison and Holly are going to get together mid-late morning (probably) to hang out a bit more. We'll see what we actually end up doing, although I'm hoping to get some walking in either tomorrow or Sunday if the weather is okay.

Today, after I slept in until 10:00 and we didn't get going until about noon, Jon and I decided to get in his car and do a bit of exploring. We headed west-ish from Cardiff, avoiding the motorway at first.

We stopped in Porthcawl, where we spent half an hour clambering around the rocky beach. Very cool rock formations and intertidal life, quite windy and sun-cloud-spitting rain-sun. I, of course, managed to step on a loose rock and slide into a tidepool with both feet...apparently, though, I did so with style. Whatever that means (ask Jon!).

Back in the car and on the road, continuing west. Lunch near Swansea, paninis at a beachside cafe at Langland Bay. We wanted fish and chips but were thwarted by the fish and chips shop at the beach closing up just before we arrived -- that's what we get for stopping for lunch at twenty to three in the afternoon! The paninis were a thoroughly acceptable alternative, though.

After lunch, Jon's theory was to drive a bit more around the Gower Peninsula, then head north and toodle around a bit. We got a bit turned around, though, and spent a while simply trying to avoid driving back into Swansea. We eventually found our way northward again, and then drove north, around the north side of the Brecon Beacons park and then back to Cardiff through the mountains. A couple of stops along the way, but mostly just enjoying driving through very pretty countryside. Drove through all sorts of weather (sun-cloud-rain-sun-rain-cloud-sun), but it did make for a number of pretty rainbows.

Then back into Cardiff for a sushi dinner get-together with a couple of Jon's friends (Dan and Lindsay) and our friend Harrison and Holly his fiancée (H and H being down in Cardiff for a couple-day mini-holiday starting with DoraMeet '09 plans as the excuse). The sushi was really good, and definitely welcome...although the prices really strained my ability to not think "how much would this cost back home" given that the numbers were about the same as they would be at a sushi restaurant in Vancouver, but the currency is worth almost twice as much. Good food and good times, though. I told everyone about Jon choking on seaweed the first time he had sushi, Holly tried a piece of my agedashi tofu having never had tofu in her life before (apparently it's not for her), and I amused Jon greatly by having a bit of a rapturous moment over my first piece of sashimi.

After dinner Lindsay went home, and the remaining five of us went to a nearby pub for a couple of drinks and a bunch more chatting. Really fun times, Dan's a fun guy and it was great to see Harrison again and meet Holly. Looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow and staying with them next week. A bit past 11:00 we said our goodnights and went our separate ways, and H&H gave Jon and I a ride back to his place because he'd had a couple of drinks, we'll go back for his car in the morning. And now it's about time for bed (or, rather, sofa), and despite having been awake for less than 14 hours I'm ready for sleep. We'll see if tomorrow I manage to sleep in a little bit less so we can be out and about sooner, although it did feel nice to sleep myself out this morning!

Current Mood: happy

Richard and I both left London this morning, he with the choir off to Cornwall and me to Cardiff to visit my friend Jon, and then my friends Sean and Aled (and then Jon again). From this point until August 31, then, the travelblog becomes an account of my solo journeyings and hanging-out-with-friends, except for the bits of time I'm hoping to spend with Richard in Oxford when he has free time from the choir's doings there.

Anyway, to Cardiff today, arriving around 12:30. Jon picked me up from the train station, and he went back to his flat for some lunch. Then out to the St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life, which is a big open-air museum...of Welsh life. Um. Anyway, it was a really neat place, and the weather was perfect for it -- sun with some bits of cloud so it wasn't too hot. The various buildings around the museum grounds cover Welsh life from the Iron Age to the mid-20th century, a real mix of things from thatched roundhouses to what was Wales' smallest post office until it was closed down.

Then back to Jon's, where we are engaging in some quality sitting around on our respective computers. 1...2...3...GEEK! Jon is making dinner (he wouldn't let me help, but I did do the washing-up from lunch and intend to do the dinner dishes as well), lasagna which is smelling really good and making me hungry.

...

The lasagna tasted as good as it smelled. Yum. Now we're watching the second half of a Star Trek: Voyager re-run. Whee. :)

Bit of a random day today, largely because Richard and I have less urgency about seeing London when it's just the two of us. We didn't leave the house until just about noon, then headed off to find sunglasses for Richard. Accomplished that, then decided it was time for some lunch as it was about 1:00. Got some food at a grocery store and sat on a bench outside the Angel shopping centre to eat. As we were finishing up we heard from the two Lau brothers who are here already (Anders and Alvin) and we all decided to meet up in Leicester Square, that being where they were about to get some lunch.

Richard and I made our way to Leicester Square and eventually met up with Middle and Big. We chatted a bit, catching up, then made our collective way to St. Paul's Cathedral by Tube. Decided when we got there that we didn't actually want to pay for admission, but that we would come back in an hour for Evensong at 5:00. Walked over to Millenium Bridge (no Dementors!) and went into the Tate Modern to pass some time. Showed the Laus the giant table and chairs sculpture and wandered through one of the galleries that we hadn't seen before. Then back over the Thames just in time for Evensong at St. Paul's, which was gorgeous even though the echoes were a bit intense. From there back to the hostel where Alvin and Anders are staying, to see if a couple of other choir people who were due in today had arrived yet. After a while we were able to find them, and the six of us went down to a pub near the hostel for dinner. Decent food and excellent company, good times. We all parted ways just after 8:00, and Richard and I headed back to Rich's to pack up our bags for our respective departures tomorrow morning and (we hope) get a decent amount of sleep tonight.

Tomorrow, bright and early, Richard is off to meet the choir and I'm on a train to Cardiff!