Sarah's 29th Birthday

The drop at the end of the Dungeon, they take the photo just as you drop! Mike, Corny, Dave Me, Lou, Terry

London Dungeon: Marama, Dave, Louise, Mike, Me, Corny, Louise, Terry, Shane

Dinner: Shane, Marama, Paula, Matt, Terry, Louise, Louise, Mike

"Happy Birthday Susan"

"Oh yes, its still Happy Birthday Susan"

The book club: Reading the books Mike got me for my Birthday!

I had (what I thought) was an awsome birthday planned, we where going to go to the London Dungeon, the go for dinner at this quaint little Italian restaurant that has a live singer. The only problem is that on Friday night Josh got REALLY sick with a tummy bug, he made it through the night, we went to the doctor and low and behold nothing you can do but let the virus take its course, so poor Joshy stayed at home and Lou, Lou T, Mike, Dave, Corny, Terry, Marz, Shane and I went to the London Dungeon. It was interesting - like a terror museum about London Dungeon, the Black Plague, McSweeny, Jack the Ripper and the Fire of London. Afterwards, Dave and Corny went elsewhere and we met up with Paula, Malcom and Matt and went to the restaurant. It was great, they had the live music, they brought me out a cake that said "Happy 29th Sarah" and they sung "Happy Birthday Susan" Oh my gosh it was so funny! Then Lou T decided that she was more entertaining than the live music and took over the microphone -it was true she was more funny! It was really good only missing my best friend! When I got home Josh had blown baloons up and put a happy birthday banner up!

On my actual birthday on Sunday I spoke to my parents and opened up their gifts on skype!!! And Josh took me to a chick flick!

The North of England

Lincoln (Cathedral in the background)

York At the top of York Cathedral - we climbed 257 steps to the top of the tower (half way up) York Cathedral York Fountains Abbey Check out the ice on the lake

Yorkshire Dales National Park Check out the fog from the car!

Richmond Castle: Josh found a friend in the museum Friar's Lane in Richmond

Richmond Castle

Richmond Castle walls and the river

Check out the sign! The snow.

Check out the army training we saw as we where driving - almost at the national park

Durham Castle - now used as the University

Durham Cathedral

Durham

Bridge looking up to the castle in Durham

Nottingham Castle Josh and Robyn Hood Oldest Inn in England This weekend we hired a car and drove up to the north of England. We left at 9am on Saturday morning and drove to Nottingham, where we had lunch in the oldest inn in England. We had a look around Nottingham then drove up to Durham. Durham was absolutely beautiful, quaint little town with an amazing Cathedral, that had the choir practicing whilst we where there. The snow was still on the ground whilst we where sightseeing, it made everything look really beautiful. We stayed the night just outside of Durham in a farm stay, really old style. I really liked it, Josh was not so keen on the smell, they bread sheep dogs! On Sunday morning we had home cooked farm style breakfast before heading off for another day of sightseeing. We drove to Richmond, had a look around then drove through the Yorkshire Dales National Park, it was so beautiful, the fog would come over the hills and we had only about 1 metre of visibility, which made it slightly difficult to drive and took us forever - to get through the park! When you here people talk about 'English country roads' they remember they are not as beautiful as they sound because actually they hardly fit one car down them and they are two way! At one point we had to drive up onto the snow to let another car past and the car almost got stuck, I am sure there are numerous times God intervened and made us stop to look at a sight as meeting other cars would not have been pretty! We finally finished driving through the park and met up with Marama and Shane at Fountains Abbey (abbey ruins and gardens). When we finished there we drove to York an checked into a guesthouse, also lovely and didn't have the smell! We walked down to an oldie worldie pub and had a nice dinner. Monday we took a walk around York, went to the cathedral and found all these beautiful, quaint shops to look in. We left York about mid-day and drove down to Lincoln. We had another home cooked breakfast in York, so didn't want lunch until later so went to an old style tea house in Lincoln, josh had scones, sandwiches and tea (doing the whole English thing) I had soup and cheesecake!! We looked around Lincoln then drove back to London. Josh did do a lot of driving and we did see a lot of the north of England which was lovely - Josh kept telling me he could have driven to Switzerland to see the snow with all the driving I got him to do!

Waitangi Day Pub Crawl

Haka outside Big Ben and Parliament

On the tube. The constabulary

Terry, Josh, Shane, Dave, Rob, Veronica

Pub 1 and the only one we managed to get in!

Cooked breakfast in our flat before we left.

On Thursday 5th February Marama and Shane arrived in the UK. I went to the airport to meet them and we came back to Lou and Terry's place by taxi, where they are staying until Monday when the go to Harrogate. On Friday we all went for a curry at brick lane, then on Saturday we went on the Waitangi Day Pub Crawl, not as busy as last year, but much colder and really muddy outside parliament where they did the Haka!