wow, what a month

Talk about going out with a bang. The last month has seen us take heavy advantage of the great number of public and bank holiday's over here and do many of the things we had been so wanting to do.

Daughter left school for her end of term (in the UK there are generally three terms to the school year September to December, January to April and April to July) on 8th of April for two weeks off. My holiday from work started the 10th through the 17th, thanks to careful planning of days off. Our first trip was one by train through Great Britain, from London Kings Cross to Inverness (Highlands Capital) in Scotland. If you wanted to tour Great Britain and arrive (you most likely will fly) into any of the airports in London, I highly recommend traveling the country by train. The country is so beautiful and you can see incredible things from the train not least of all the changing landscape of the land.

Our purpose for going to Inverness was to visit Loch Ness which is a 20 minute cab ride from the city. We stayed at the Clansmen hotel, one of surprisingly few hotels to have their presence nearly on the water. With a room with a balcony t made for spectacular viewing, especially when the sun came up. Our obvious reason for going to Loch Ness was to search for the monster, Nessie, and so we obviously brought binoculars along. We spent the remaining daylight of the day interchanging between the windows and the balcony (it was very cold and windy) looking for the creature. Our only full day was spent touring the several museums dedicated to the big tourist draw as well as the town of Drumnadrochit the closest to the many sighting of Nessie. We had thought of doing a couple of the other things including touring the local castle ruins and the boat tour of the loch but the weather could not make up its mind. The hotel was average and the food at the hotel was hit and miss, the dinners were uneatable but the breakfast (I had haggis and black pudding) was good on both days.

The trip on the train again was amazing, we got to see highland cows, nuclear power plants, the coast of Scotland and England and massive fields of flowers. Truly Great Britain.

The rest of the week was spent recovering from the trip and relaxing at the house. Though I went back to work the following Monday, daughter still had time off and partner did some hanging out, including going to the local pleasure grounds. The next Friday (the 22nd) we took a trip, again another by train, to the town of Great Missenden, the birthplace of the beloved and renowned children's author Roald Dahl. The town is tiny but lovely and the museum is amazing. Roald Dahl led a very interesting life and the museum is well worth the visit. Did you know that on top of the vast amount of children'e literature that he wrote he also had a successful radio series in the US prior to that. He was a member of the RAF and wrote the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and You only live twice. The trip was fun and the food had at the museum was great.

A week later and I have a four day weekend thanks to the banks and of course the Royal Wedding. I have become a bit of a Royalist since being here, I like the thought of it and properly administered can be a great thing. So I had been quite excited about the wedding. I originally intended to see it in person but, when hearing the volume of people that planned to come out, I decided I could get a better view from my television. So I watched the entire thing from the first moment that Prince William rode out and down the mile to after the couple went back inside after a couple of sadly underwhelming kisses, he should have grabbed her and tipped her over and shared that fairy tale smooch. The whole event was lovely and as someone who is trying to re-ignite my own personal image it was great seeing all the well dressed people.

Afterwards, we went to a small "block party" that was really more of a large garden party and only really ok.

Saturday we decided to take in a Movie and saw the first showing of the day of Thor. Thor is an amazing and enjoyable telling of the God of Thunder's story and was well worth the trip.

The Royal Wedding was not the only celebration this weekend. My daughter also had her birthday on May 1st, yesterday. This was perhaps a far more important celebration and we decided to spend it taken in the views at Windsor Castle. Entry is not free but it is reasonable, even more-so when you consider the ticket lasts a year. The inside is amazing and you get to see a surprising amount of stuff. It is open the entire day even on a Sunday and luckily the only thing we did not get to see was the changing of the guard (wish we had). The Queen Mary doll house was amazing and the St. George's hall was really cool, as was the guard room. You get to see fantastic art and priceless artifacts. It is definitely worth the trip. Since the tickets last we will probably go back again, especially for changing of the guard and to see St. George's Chapel. The castle was so amazing that we walked through once, went and had tea (lunch) and went through again. The second time we noticed stuff we had not before.

About the tea, we decided that for Daughter's birthday we would go to the Crooked Tea House. The Crooked Tea House (the current building) was built in the 1600's and is crooked because when built they used unseasoned green oak, which warps over time. The tea sandwiches were ok but the coffee and tea were great. It was quite pricey but since it was someone's birthday it was worth it.

I mentioned that I could also thank the banks, well in the UK if the banks miss having a day off because the holiday fell on a weekend then they take the following or previous day off. Hence my posting this on Monday as May Day, is a bank holiday here. We originally had no intention of going out today but some friends invited us to the park. It is nice and sunny out but the wind is strong and chilly.

We have been amazingly lucky with the weather as well, the past few weeks or so has brought incredible weather.

So as you can see, a great month. Still have more to do though.