England

Philipp and I took an overnight Ferry to England from Amsterdam. What a mistake! Philipp was fine but I was constantly feeling 'almost' sick and whilst walking through the ship that feeling always turned into feeling 'really' sick. Maybe it was the movement of the ship and my own movement combined which made me go green, whatever it was, I was not happy. However when we woke up, all was calm and I began to recover, even smile a bit! (seen here!)
The drive from Newcastle down towards home was very quick and we even arrived in time for Lunch!! It was so lovely to be back home amongst my family and the green fields of the Village. Writing this now, (a good few weeks later) in the middle of a city where one has to search to find green, I find myself feeling extremely homesick! Well, you would if you'd grown up in a place like this:

Home, Sweet Home

To be brutally honest with you, this isn't going to be a very long post or very interesting, because while we were with my family there was so much to do, (my sister moved house during the two weeks we were there) and not a lot of time to get the camera out. It was lovely to see the kids though, and to see how much they have grown. Selma is talking so much and all the time, even in her sleep and Lotta has started to bottom shuffle, which is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.
However I did manage to get out to York to see my friend Vicky, who I hadn't seen in at least two years. Shame on me, I know, but life does have a habit of getting in the way of things. I spent the night at her place and we had great fun, cooking dinner, drinking a glass of wine, catching up and I got to finally meet DanDave (as I like to call him). Also she has just recently got a Puppy, a Rhodesian Ridgeback who is already huge but not scary at all. Those of you who know me, know that I have a bit of a fear of dogs in general, especially if they jump up...... scares the living daylights out of me until I get to know the dog. But Sid was lovely and even though he was kind of excited and jumpy, he didn't scare me at all!

Sid the Rhodesian Ridgeback

So apart from moving house for my sister, not much happened while we were in England, nothing hugely exciting anyway. Oh wait, one thing did happen, something that was very stressful for me but on the other hand, very good for me too. But that's another story and one I'm going to save for a rainy day!

Lotta and I on a walk to the Back of the Dale.

Have a great Friday everyone xxx

And talking of David.....

Happy Birthday David!




 I'm sorry this is late David, but lots of love anyway!
Hugs xxxxxxx

VIVA COLONIA!

Very excited about the fact that we were finally able to go on holiday, Philipp and I set off to Cologne, to visit David. Unfortunately, due to crap planning and general laziness, we all got a bit confused about exactly which week we had planned, and therefor David was working a fair bit of the time we were there. No matter, because the time we got to spend with him were absolute quality, as always!! We arrived in his new shared house, met all his new housemates and played a game of Risk. This is our usual routine. And usually David completely flattens us. For those of you who don't know this game, Risk is a strategy game, played on a simplified map of the World, where the players aim is either to Conquer Continents, or Countries or to simply flatten another player depending on the task card one pulls out at the beginning of the game. One can also play for World Domination but that takes a hell of a lot longer and is much harder. And usually ends in tears.....well on my part!
Over the next few days, Philipp and I did lots of touristy things, like the Cologne Cathedral (not inside - there was some kind of concert going on and we weren't allowed in!), Cologne city centre, watch Davids singing rehearsal, visit his Library Job aaaand the best thing..... go to the bar where he works and drink a lot of alcohol for a little money! That was a very fun night, and I'm sorry to say that I don't have a single photo from it. But I have plenty of other photos!

 

Cologne Cathedral

The night before David had to go somewhere to do a course for something, we decided to have a few drinks at home and only then decide if we were going to go out on the town. It ended up being a lot of drinks and not going out on the town, instead we carried on drinking until it was time for David's early morning train to leave and even dropped him off at the S-Bahn stop. The poor guy must have suffered that day!! Imagine having to sit through some kind of boring lectures while the hangover catches up with you, slowly but surely and painfully! I felt for you David!
That was a crazy night and the rest of the time we spent at Davids was pretty quiet in comparison, we played another game of Risk, (two in fact - one of which I WON!!!!!) and basically hung around until it was time to leave for our ferry to England.

Dear Mr Havana, thank you for making the night very interesting!

Philipp sightseeing!

Stuttgart 21 Demo in Cologne

Also, just randomly, whilst in Cologne, Philipp and I ran into a Stuttgart 21 demonstration, so of course we went along with it!!! It was fun, walking through the streets of Cologne and shouting about something that was happening three hours away!
We also found the wall of padlocks, along the bridge over the Rhine, which runs through Cologne! I found it very romantic because in Cologne its tradition that when you get married to go and buy a special padlock and together you lock it on the wall of the bridge and you will be happy forever! Or something like that - I'll have to check that again!
 Anyway, thank you David for having us, we had a great time at your place, as always! And we will be back to visit very soon!
Hugs to you all xxxxxxxx

Aaaand I'm back

So, since its been such a long time I'm not going to try and catch you up on everything I've been doing, just the exciting things! I think I'm going to do it all in separate posts, just to keeps me busy and to keep you interested!!
Hope you enjoy reading them!

Photo taken by Philipp Linder

Peace out