Baked Beans on Toast

I have been rather busy these last few days. Friday saw myself, Tamsin, Olivia and Alice lying underneath one big umbrella next to a resort type pool on a 40 degree day. The sun was so warm on our skin, and the pool was a perfect temperature. However, after about 10 minutes, the sun was a little, erm too warm, but luckily we were equipped with some sunscreen. Later after bathing in the sun's glory, we started to get the house ready for the party that Tamsin and Olivia were having for us. With Lea buying 4 slabs of Heineken, the walls now being very clean and the music ready to go, The Sheikh himself would be happy with the outcome (funny enough, a Sheikh friend of Tamsin and Olivia did come to the party). 

The party was great, with the ring of fire and good ol' aussie beer pong providing much entertainment. Alice and I met some lovely people, with many repeating over and over "Australians are just so nice!"

The next day saw hard times, with early rising and a plane to catch for Alice and I. 8 hours, 4 disney movies, 1 episode of friends and a game of tetris later Alice and I had arrived in England at Heathrow airport. It was a beautiful concrete grey outside and true English weather awaited us. 

Our temporary residence lies with Alice's mum's boyfriend's parent's house in a town called Fleet. A bit of a mouthful I know, but it has been very lovely with Cris and Pauline providing very comfy cozy accommodation and non stop food and drink (our first meal being baked beans and grilled cheese on toast).

Myself and Alice have kept our running up, and we have ran the last few chilly mornings. On Sunday, after our refreshing run and the massive cooked breakfast that was provided for us, we ventured to Windsor where we walked and walked around the beautiful (I am not sure really whether you would call it a town or a village..., I'll just call it a 'town-village') town-village. Windsor was beautiful, with the castle in the middle providing an exquisite centre for the town-village. Once again, it is really impossible to describe such sights in words, so, to make my job a lot easier, here are some snaps:

Stopping at a french cafe, we met Yvette who was a very nice change from previous English work-women and men who tend to be very disinterested. There, we had our daily coffee (I still feel quite lethargic in the evenings and caffeine tends to give me the 'pick me up' that I need). Continuing further we set our sights on a satyr. Sitting happily, the satyr was placed on the outside of a house (I must admit, the statue did make me like the house a lot more). Later on, I had my first English beer 'London Pride'. I didn't really have to much pride in London after tasting it to be honest.

Now I am up to Monday. Monday, we were quite adventurous. We had decided the night before that we wanted to go to Stonehenge, Salisbury and the 'forest' so at about 9am we took off on our journey making our first stop at Stonehenge. Now, we didn't actually see the point in going inside, paying extra and all for a mere few metres, so these pictures are from our view from behind the fence...Actually, you get a better view than we did, because we put our cameras over the fence...the fence that was too tall to see over. Stupid fence. 

Our next stop was to Salisbury, a medieval town. The Cathedral we visited was amazing, with cool looking gargoyles hanging off some of the outside walls. Our walk around Salisbury was very lovely with the architecture of the town providing amazing sights, one of my favorite pieces of architecture being where we stopped for lunch. A tall building with much character, with cute little windows made from small shards of glass surrounded by wood panels. Around the 16^th century, roughly Elizabethan times, the glass could not be blown into large shards due to the lack of technology.
Alice, Izzy and I shared a jacket potato, macaroni and cheese and a burger that lunch.

The new forest was our next destination that afternoon. It was not like Stonehenge, or Windsor which were popular tourist spots…no, it was quiet and our walk took us into the depths of the trees and shrubs where squirrels ran, deer grazed and horses got hoof deep stuck in thick English mud. For a moment, the chirping of birds and the slight sound of rustling were the only noises that could reach our ears.

Oh, and some friendly donkey's surrounded our car to say 'hi'.