A night in the Ibis

Greetings Blog pickers! Just a short update to say that we are safe and sound in our hotel in Luton. Basic but quite comfortable and we of course picked up a bottle of wine for the hotel room.

So now we are sitting on the bed, drinking wine and eating cheese, watching the Spanish weather forecast. The man is speaking so fast that i cannot keep up, but the pictures tell me all i need to know...yes folks it is going to be raining in Menorca tomorrow! Oh well, at least we will be prepared..

Our check in time is 445am tomorrow. Boy do we love those early morning flights. I'll have to skip the cold medicine tonight methinks...

We may be out of touch for a day or two when we arrive. Due to a new Spanish law, my sim card has been deactivated. First stop is the Orange store to get it sorted. James' phone should be fine though so you can reach us on his spanish number which is +34 691 153 710. As soon as we can we will be back online with the blog. Next update may well be from the beach! James will be the one in the pink flamingo swim shorts...

Big love to all!

D&J

Onward to España!

Hiya! Y'awrite? James here practicing the northern vernacular. We've just left the campsite, dropped off our bags at the Winder Hall, and are now headed down to London to catch a flight early tomorrow morning to Menorca. The sun is shining for the first time just as we leave the Lake District, but isn't that the way it always goes? I don't think my northern accent will serve me well down south, but oh well. I have five hours in the car to practice me cockney.

This photo of David is one of the few you'll see of him. I am defo not the photographer! (More northern for you! ) He's the one always doing the driving on the left side of the road, thank goodness!

Perhaps I'll write more later on. For now I have to look up at the road so I don't get dizzy.

Bye for now!

James

Breakfast Time

Morning all!

Just a quick post now that the mobile blog is up and running. Hungry? I am!

Big love,

D&J

Dull place number 1.

Tried some mobile Blogging yesterday but i used the wrong email address, so here goes again!

This afternoon we want to a little village called Maryport, just outside of the lake district. It was a pretty grim place but the wind did give James a nice hair do.

Be warned...never come to Maryport.

Big Love

D&J

Demons, Seeds, and a nasty cold

Greetings all...

Before you ask, yes it is still raining.  We have now entered our 9th straight day of rain in the lake district.  The saying "Rain before 7, fine by 11" clearly has a veto option for the lake district.....unless they are referring to month numbers of course!

On Saturday we decided to venture outside of the Lakes for a while.  We did, and guess what..it wasn't raining there!  We spent a lovely afternoon at Brough Castle and Brougham Castle, two English Heritage properties about 50 miles away from where we are staying.  I won't go so far as to say that the weather was wonderful, but it was nice to have a little break from the rain.  The odd break in the clouds also meant that I was able to break out the camera for a short while.  More than a little rusty, due to my summer being devoted to Cisco and wedding plans, I was a little nervous at first, but soon got into the swing of it.  I even spent some time with a standard lens on my camera...that didn't last long though, and soon I was back to my beloved lensbaby kit.  I shot some images of James, one of which is attached here.  A little different from my normal work...maybe a new direction?

Afterwards we headed back into Cockermouth.  You may recall, dear readers, that we had reservations at "The Bitter End" for dinner.  We dined on Supremes of Pheasant, pan fried in butter with Juniper and Thyme, with Roasted Garlic Mash Potato, Parsnip Crisps, and a selection of vegetables. Totally awesome, and for those of you who think that English food is bland, I am very sorry to have to disappoint you!

Sunday was to be a trip to see my sister in Congleton.  The drive there was about 3 hours and we spent the day with Jane and Mike and ate lots.  It didn't rain there either, which was nice.  Then, back to the rainy lakes of course.   I have developed a nasty cold as well, which is annoying (which also gave me a bunch of bad dreams too...or maybe it was the scotch and ibuprofen?).  We haven't had a single chance to do any walking yet, and it looks like we won't this week either.

On Monday we had an important task to complete.  This was the day that we would give notice for our Civil Partnership in Kendal, having completed our residency requirements.  We arrived (with me sniffing a lot) at the register office to met by two ladies who would process our application.  One was the spitting image of Patricia Routledge (Mrs Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances) and the other was the spitting image of her next door neighbouor, Elizabeth.  Every time something went wrong with the registrars computer she would call the other lady "Lynne, come here please" in this stentorian voice, and Lynne would scurry over to fix things.  It was somewhat hard to keep a straight face through it all, but after a whole hour of Mrs Bucket tapping away at the keyboard we were duly processed.  Now the notice of Civil Partnership has to be displayed for 14 days before we can get hitched.  Our residency is now complete, so we can leave the area officially.  Accordingly, we are heading off to Menorca on Thursday for a week!  Pray that the rain doesn't go with us.....

Today, with me still full of the cold, it looks like the sun might be out for a few hours in between the constant rain.  We are heading into Keswick and plan on taking it easy for once.  James has a bunch of paperwork to catch up on, and I need to blog a little too.  Can't disappoint our readers!  I'm hoping that the weather may brighten up tonight and that I feel a little better, as I would like to buy some venison to cook at the campsite....I'm thinking of some Aged Venison medallions with some Juniper, red wine reductions, and new potatoes....anyone want to come visit!

So that's all folks!  Tomorrow (Wednesday) we drive down to Luton for the night and then head out to Menorca early on Thursday morning.  We'll keep you posted as to where we are!

Big Love to all,

D&J

The Photographers

Thursday


Greetings all, Thursday afternoon came really quickly didn’t it? Well, that was because I finished Thursday morning only about 2 minutes ago here on Saturday. Confused? Please do keep up…..

Thursday evening was, as you can imagine, kind of slow after the night before. We spent the night in the Kirkstile Inn, a super pub with a dinner of Stilton and Spinach Vegetarian Lasagna and beer. Bedtime was at 9pm though….ouch.

Friday dawned, and yes it was still raining. Did you expect anything else? Kippers for breakfast, cooked by yours truly, and then we had an appointment with the photographers to keep. They are located in Bowness on Windermere, and like everything else, having booked them two years ago, I was really eager to finally meet up. We had a great meeting with them. We clicked (ha ha…pun intended) straight away and spent just over two hours chatting and going over the day. Steven and Josh were so great to be with and I can’t wait to see their work. I spent ages looking at wedding photographers, and was thrilled with what they had done for others, and even more excited that they were available. They have done a number of Civil Partnerships before for women, but we are to be their first male CP couple. I hope we do a good job for them as well! There is a chance that as long as we don’t both look like trolls in the final images that they may use us in advertising. Fame at last! It is an honour to maybe be able to help out such great photographers and really nice people. If you haven’t done so, check out their website at http://www.steventaylorphotography.co.uk/

Afterwards, as it was still raining (surprise!) we stopped off at our Florist and picked up our quote for flowers. We then decided to continue the hunt for shoes. Having checked out many Marks and Spencer’s stores and finding shoes that we liked, but that were not available in our size, we headed to Carlisle. There, at last we got shoes sorted, so our wedding outfits are now complete! Such fun!

Then of course it was time for dinner. Having had Kippers for breakfast, Sausage and Chips/Fries for lunch, Scones and James for just after lunch (at Brambles in Windermere for those who watched “The Lake” on telly last year), and chocolate for after an “after scone” treat We really didn’t feel like eating much. So we went to a fabulous pub in Cockermouth called “The Bitter End” (Alan and & Phil, this is a great place if you are looking for some good beer and top tucker when you arrive in a few weeks). The dinner menu looked so good that we are now booked for Saturday night there….One pint later, we were off to The Wheatsheaf in Lorton for our second pint before bed. Such a busy day!

And now it is Saturday. We are back up to date! Sitting here in Keswick drinking coffee and typing has been quite relaxing. It feels weird not to have to be going somewhere and meeting somebody. So today is to be a relaxing day. Yes, it is still raining, which is a little annoying as I have had no chance to take any pictures since we got here. Some photographer eh? Still our days have been plenty busy as you, dear reader, have seen. Walking/Hiking has also been non-existent too. I have no problem in getting the waterproofs out while in the middle of a hike, but starting out in a downpour is far less appealing. Hopefully that will all change soon, as we need a few walks to help with the waistline after all this food!

So, there we have it. We hope that all are well. Not sure when the next update will be, but watch this space! We’ll be back soon!
Big Love to all,
D&J

“The Bag of Very Important Things”

So Wednesday we hear you cry? Well, the day dawned and it was…..raining. Again. Well, this is the Lake District, and the weather is always unpredictable. Everyone has been asking us what the weather will be like for the wedding, and I always respond that “I don’t know. It’s the Lake District so it could be sunny, rainy, windy, grey, blue, hot, or cold….or all of the above at the same time. Being so high up you never really quite know what to expect. So a word to those who are coming…..be prepared for anything!

So, the day dawned and it was raining. The rain then stopped, and I thought that it had finished. So I started to cook breakfast. No sooner had I lit the stove and cracked the eggs into the frying pan…well you can guess the rest. It began to rain again. James retreated to the car and I stood there frying eggs and bacon in a downpour. This is the life! The raindrops did make the fried eggs go a little funny on top, but they tasted fabulous, and that is surely what it is all about right? It is about soggy socks, wet trousers, and looking like a drowned rat with a frying pan….right?

Next it was in the car and off on a road trip. Today was to be a day of fun, as we were heading to see our friends Christine and Sheridan. The last time we saw Christine when she came to visit us in Menorca back in March 2008. If you feel the need, you can scroll back through the blog archives and look for her. She is the one in the picture standing doing the “I’m a little tea pot dance”…’nuff said. Anyway, Christine and Sheridan live in Tottington and we affectionately refer to them as the Top Totties from Tottington. So of we headed down the M6 for an evening of fun. On the way we stopped off at the parking lot of a pub called the Pheasant. We thought that we had been there before, but couldn’t remember, so wondered if a visual would jog our memories. A quick pull in to the car park confirmed that we had indeed, and recalled having a fabulous meal. I quickly got something out of the boot/trunk of the car, heard a little thud of something falling out of the trunk, promptly forgot all about it, got back in the car and drove on………

About 2.5 hours later, just before a motorway service station/rest-stop I suddenly remembered the little thud. And I remembered that right by the area where I was getting stuff out, was the bag with….dum dum duh…..

THE WEDDING RINGS

So can you imagine the stress levels in the car at this point? Now I am normally calm, cool, and collected in almost all situations. I am the steady one when everyone else goes to pieces. Not this time. The realization that I had let platinum wedding rings fall out of the car, in a pub car park that was now 2.5 hours away, in the middle of the Lake District….well, for the first time ever James saw me have a meltdown. I burst into tears while driving, and blubbed to James what had happened. James, poor love, wasn’t really quite sure what was happening, but I think that my total disintegration into hysteria clinched the deal. We pulled off at the service station which thankfully was only about 500 yards further. I leapt out of the car like a gay man being chased by the leader of the American Family Association, followed by James in hot pursuit and opened the trunk. I grabbed the bag that contained the wedding rings, our Dunhill Cufflinks, passports, check/cheque books, and other important goodies and started hunting through it in desperation, like Brittany Spears hunting for her virginity. And so, dear reader, what do you think the answer to this mystery was?

Well, the rings were there. So were the cufflinks. So were the check/cheque books. And so seemed to be everything else. What fell out of the car? I have no idea, but I know that something did and it was from “The Bag of Very Important Things”. I guess we will find out what it was when we are standing in line somewhere and need “Item X”. With relief, while clutching the wedding rings like some tragic bride from a reality show, I burst into tears in the middle of the parking lot. At which point, a Jehovahs Witness selling brushes appeared next to us and asked if we would like to buy something…..(actually it was some strange looking man offering to sell us a book of jokes, but I thought the JW line was funnier). We told him that we were kind of busy (and by the way if someone is in floods of tiers in a parking lot, the last thing they need is some wise-cracking weirdo trying to flog them a book of jokes….try offering Scotch or a Martini next time please) and he scurried off back to his parallel universe. Disaster and tragedy averted, we headed on our way.

A quick trip around the shopping centre of Bury, (which fixed mobile phone issues for David, and slightly fixed them for James) and we were on our way. Next stop…The Totties! Arriving at about 4pm we were greeted by Christine and Sheridan with wine and hugs. What more could we have asked for! Well, a hot-tub, caviar, and David Beckham spring to mind….but seeing as that was unlikely we remembered our manners and hugged and kissed back. We had a fabulous time with them. We chatted, and drank, chatted and drink, drank, ate, drank, drank, drank, and went to bed. Yes, that was where the 8 bottles of wine came in…and went. I guess when you open the first one at 4pm, and go to bed at 1.30am (David and Sheridan…separately of course), and 2.45am (James and Christine….also separately) you have to find something to fill the time. Morning came awfully quick……

More hugs and kisses and we were on our way on Thursday morning. We stopped off at the service station on the way home and that, dear reader, is where the previous blog came in. And I am still behind as it is now Saturday…..lol!

So, on we go! I’ll see you in the next post!



Big Love,

D&J