Wortley Hall Sheffield

Went to see 'Aladdin' at the 'Opera House' in Manchester this evening. Borrowing 2 unsuspecting children for cover, we went to see a typical Panto. With bright and elaborate costumes, corny jokes that appeal to kids and adults it was an absolute scream. Best ...

Merry Christmas

Greetings from Manchester!

Had many responses to Geoff's new e-mail notification so thought we would send a message to update our 4 months since leaving home.

The best way of following our lives as tourists is on our "Travel Pod" which we set up for a diary for ourselves. It’s turning out to be a really good record of visits to places far and wide.

http://www.travelpod.com/m embers/geoffrhonda

Manchester, England, United Kingdom geoffrhonda

How could anything be worse than the Ball Breaker? How? And yet it was. Damn the kilometres of bog, damn the no bacon butty truck on the highway, damn the twisty part where you go around curve after curve after curve and don’t see anything ahead of you but CURVE. Then damn the “ ...

... back for me while I got something out of my pack, he didn’t, and the sheep almost got me.

See that Campsite?

After almost finishing the part of the Pennine that I call “The Ball Breaker” Ryan points down the mountain to a little campsite in the distance. It was far away but hope sprang back into my heart until he said, “See that campsite? Our campsite is only 2km from there.” YEARGH!!!

... raining still!

It has been a bit of a blur today, as well as the Royal Marsden we have been to Addenbrookes in Cambridge, THe Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham and now I am sitting in a cosy front room in Sheffield with a real fire!
I am excited about tomorrow as we will be going back to my home town of Newcastle. Yippee!!
I have taken a few pictures of the day.

... bargain - and this coming for one of the biggest shopaholic bargain hunters around. To escape the crowds and the rain we took shelter in Harvey Nicks (avoiding the £900 shoes that I am I love with) and enjoyed hot chocs and cupcakes for afternoon tea.

Saturday night we headed out with a group of Dave's friends for a curry and then drinks, firstly in the canal street area (Manchester's gay district) where we enjoyed disco music under ...

... people, the mystery surrounding it and the sheer size of the stones just makes you feel insignificant. Stonehenge is definitely one of the greatest sights I have ever seen. The day before they had a huge festival to celebrate midsummer, and apparently there were 36,000 people there camping out to see the sunrise as it hit the stones. We were very lucky that there was lots of traffic and we arrived at stonehenge late because we got there right before the Druid Order did their ...

... you mind allowing this silly American who you've never met before and don't know if he's some sort of felon to take your credit card to order a bus ticket, and sure I'll pay you back in cash. Somehow, he went for it. And I was on my merry way. Slowly. Traffic in England, in a word, sucks. Coaches in England, in a word, suck. It's cold outside but toasting in the bus, figure that one out.

So a couple hours late and a few minor miracles cashed in, I was in ...

... check and charging me nothing (right after he told a guy with a cheap bike he'd have to wait a week for repairs:-). Now the real adventure begins. I followed the trail, but got lost a lot and much of it was not really bike-friendly (see the pics on the web site). After stopping at a pub for dinner, I decided to stay on the road (A628) for a while, which was harrowing since it was snake-like and had trucks. The trail paralleled the road so I used the trail when i ould but there ...

... box and I wanted to be called a "****ing mook" by someone. I knew the iconography and plastic mythology of America better than anything in my own country and I loved it. I watched films and read books and dreamed of a counter-cultural life 40 years too late. The hippy dream had burst when its balloon landed on a railway line but I wanted a feel of it. America was mine. I felt I knew it better than most Americans. I had watched ...