London Calling

Right after Christmas we were wisked away to England to visit with Rich's Mom and her husband Nick. In a nutshell...It was AWESOME! It was supposed to be a surprise for the ladies but we had to find a place for Lexi and Maya to stay so I was filled in early. The puppies stayed with my parents, who were more than happy (at first) to have them there. They certainly enjoyed their youthfulness but I think they were happy to hand them back over when we got back! hehe They were in very good hands the whole time!

The only person that was kept in the dark was Richard's Mom, Sue. She was told the day that we were arriving while at a soccer match. :) She was soo happy! What an awesome surprise. Hats off to Nick, I don't know how he ever kept that a secret for so long!

We flew Air Canada and had a great flight there and back. We flew direct which made it all very easy and convenient.

Caught a little off guard. Our flight attendent brought us some first class packages filled with lip balm, hand creams, eye masks, and ear plugs...This made for a very comfortable sleep on the way there. :) I even got some slippers hehe

We stayed in Stoke On Trent while in England. Its a really charming town with amazing footpaths to walk along. Many people had their dogs off leash, which made me really miss Angel Woods. Their dogs never left their side, unlike the dogs in Canada who will happily knock you over while saying hi.

The pic is fairly representative of the view from one of the footpaths but mostly of the weather! They weren't kidding when they say that England is foggy and damp. It always felt as if I was in a scene from a zombie movie!

The landscape in England was very pretty. It was still pretty green and had lots of hills that were dotted with sheep.

There was some frost but it never stayed for long. It snowed a little but didn't stay for too long either. I could definitely get used to that! We even got to see some delicate looking flowers that were in bloom!

It was a little weird to see the driver on the right side but it became familiar pretty quick. I liked the way that there were almost no street lights or stop signs anywhere. I had some trouble for the first time in a long time, I got car sick almost every time I was in the car for longer than 15 min :(

I think it was because of the winding roads and all the up and downs and roundabouts! It was constant movement...The most confusing part of the roads was crossing the street. Sometimes there weren't crosswalks and other times you didn't know which way to look. Thankfully in London it tells you which way to look :)

Things were a lot of smaller too. Washer and dryers were half the size of the ones here, and the fridges were tiny too.

Our second day there, we went on a little adventure to a giant store called Tesco. It's a supersize grocery store with housewares, electronics, clothing etc...

The above pic is apparently an ingredient in a popular snack. Cheese and pickle sandwhich anyone?

Why not roast some potatoes in some goose fat? It was actually pretty delish.

Back bacon is the typical bacon that is served here. The long strips that we have in Canada is called stringy bacon. 

Correction: Streaky Bacon

They also had some really interesting drinks. I drank J2O juice the whole time, which was pretty yummy. My soda of choice, Ginger Ale, is usually only used as a mixer. So it was with the alcohol and the bottle was much smaller than usual.

Would a trip to England be complete without stopping for Fish 'n Chips? After pulling Rich out of Tesco kicking and screaming, we stopped by the restaurant at the top of the street.

(please note the vast amounts of board games behind me)

Common, it's just food!

Chips covered in curry sauce! SO GOOD! Curry is among one of the most popular dishes, right up my alley (Hey, I just called it chips without realizing it! I've been assimilated)

Fishie!

Sue and Nick are huge boards gamers. They also own a cute shop across from a Jamaican restaurant that is grammatically challenged.

Hamster Wheel is one of the fun games that we played. You have to try to get rid of your oddly shaped pieces, without knocking all the pieces out of the wheel.

Check out the top of the wheel!

...and the winner is!

Stay tuned for more!