On A Highway To Hull
Disclaimer: I did not come up with the above pun, but it was too awesome not to use it as a post title.
Graham and I returned safely from our trip to Hull yesterday in the early afternoon. We had a very good time.
Even though it had technically been years since I last saw Emma in person, it felt like no time had passed at all. Happy days! Our men were both a bit quiet on the first evening, not able to share in our familiarity, but much to my relief they thawed out considerably over the course of the weekend.
Emma and Guido's place is a nice little house very close to the waterfront. Some of the interior design was a bit strange, such as the complete lack of a bathroom lock, or the fact that the master bedroom is located on a gallery right above the living room/dining area/kitchen, which means that it's impossible to have any real privacy there, and if one person gets up earlier than the other and makes breakfast, they are more or less bound to wake anyone still asleep up there. Understandably, Emma and Guido actually use the dedicated guest bedroom as their own, and Graham and I got to sleep on the gallery. It was interesting.
Emma also still seems to enjoy cooking more than ever and provided as with yummy home-cooked meals every day, which was something that we were very grateful for.
Notes on individual days!
Thu 10/05
The drive up north to Hull was long but fairly straightforward and uneventful, other than the weather constantly changing between rain and sunshine and me discovering the wonders of having to flip radio stations every fifty miles or so.
Graham had printed out directions but they didn't include a map of the last few steps of our journey. We were fine with that until we arrived in Hull itself and our instructions told us to turn left at a place that didn't appear to exist (or at least it wasn't signposted). We drove in random circles for a bit and were about to give up, park somewhere and call for help, when I suddenly spotted a familiar street name. Fortunately we had eventually ended up in the right place by sheer dumb luck. Since we were a bit early and neither Emma nor Guido were home yet, we had a brief look at the Humber but soon ended up holing up in our car again when it started to rain. By the time Emma showed up it was bright and sunny again and she wasn't even aware that it had rained at any point during the day.
Fri 11/05
Emma and Guido both had to work on Friday, so Graham and I were mostly left to our own devices. I was proud that I managed to both arm and disarm the alarm system correctly, and we went out for a bit of a walk through the inner city. It was actually pretty nice, and for all of Emma's talk about the "depressed north" I found that we didn't see considerably more closed shop fronts than we have in Reading. In fact, they have some pretty damn nice shopping centres and pedestrian zones in Hull.
Among other things we visited the BBC building where Emma works, and the local Debenhams because I couldn't resist checking out their luggage department (sad, I know). We discovered a place called "Waterhouse Lane", which we found endlessly amusing because Waterhouse is Mark's last name. For lunch we stopped at the local Burger King and I had the amazing revelation that a chicken burger from an American fast food company is actually the closest thing to Austrian schnitzel that I've ever eaten in this country. (Chicken Tendercrisp, your crunchy breadcrumb coating is awesome!)
Since both Graham and I tend to tire quickly and the weather was once again not particularly pleasant, we returned to base after only a couple of hours and spent the remainder of the afternoon reading, snuggling and sleeping.
In the evening we all watched a bit of tv together (and I was very intrigued by the show Episodes), and then played a game of Star Munchkin. I lost as usual, but at least I ended my existence as a psychic mutant cyborg bounty hunter. I seem to remember that the last time I played Munchkin with the guys I never amounted to much of anything since I never got any creature cards and thus never got a chance to level up.
Sat 12/05
Saturday we all went out for lunch together and then Graham and I accompanied Emma and Guido on their grocery shopping.
In the evening Emma threw a little house-warming party which involved two of her work colleagues popping over for a bit (a third was invited but apparently couldn't make it). We had a lot of fun playing with the Wii and laughing at people's silly motions while pretending to take part in Olympic sports. Somehow we ended up unlocking a knight outfit and my Mii got put into it, which was good for a lot of laughs. Nothing like doing gymnastics or synchronised swimming in full plate mail...
Sun 13/05
On Sunday we ended up playing with the Wii some more, after I had a look at our hosts' collection of games and commented on how I never quite understood what the deal was with all the Lego games. I mean, they make films based on games based on toys based on films? What? Emma and Guido explained that the best way to explain why they were fun was probably to simply let us try one out, and so we were soon whisked away into the magical world of Lego Harry Potter. And damn, it was fun!
We only stopped when it was time for us to go to the cinema and see Avengers Assemble. While I had only seen the Iron Man films leading up to it, I really enjoyed all the characters in this one. I think this is pretty much what a good superhero movie is meant to be: fast action, smooth talking, a villain who is no less interesting than the heroes and a healthy dose of fun. Without spoiling anything, I can say that Loki + The Hulk = Awesome.
In the evening we played some more games.
Mon 14/05
Not much to say about this one, other than that we got up fairly early and drove back home. It was pretty much the same as going up, only with one less break this time and without the getting lost part. And that was the conclusion of our adventure!
P.S.: Some photos can be found here.
Graham and I returned safely from our trip to Hull yesterday in the early afternoon. We had a very good time.
Even though it had technically been years since I last saw Emma in person, it felt like no time had passed at all. Happy days! Our men were both a bit quiet on the first evening, not able to share in our familiarity, but much to my relief they thawed out considerably over the course of the weekend.
Emma and Guido's place is a nice little house very close to the waterfront. Some of the interior design was a bit strange, such as the complete lack of a bathroom lock, or the fact that the master bedroom is located on a gallery right above the living room/dining area/kitchen, which means that it's impossible to have any real privacy there, and if one person gets up earlier than the other and makes breakfast, they are more or less bound to wake anyone still asleep up there. Understandably, Emma and Guido actually use the dedicated guest bedroom as their own, and Graham and I got to sleep on the gallery. It was interesting.
Emma also still seems to enjoy cooking more than ever and provided as with yummy home-cooked meals every day, which was something that we were very grateful for.
Notes on individual days!
Thu 10/05
The drive up north to Hull was long but fairly straightforward and uneventful, other than the weather constantly changing between rain and sunshine and me discovering the wonders of having to flip radio stations every fifty miles or so.
Graham had printed out directions but they didn't include a map of the last few steps of our journey. We were fine with that until we arrived in Hull itself and our instructions told us to turn left at a place that didn't appear to exist (or at least it wasn't signposted). We drove in random circles for a bit and were about to give up, park somewhere and call for help, when I suddenly spotted a familiar street name. Fortunately we had eventually ended up in the right place by sheer dumb luck. Since we were a bit early and neither Emma nor Guido were home yet, we had a brief look at the Humber but soon ended up holing up in our car again when it started to rain. By the time Emma showed up it was bright and sunny again and she wasn't even aware that it had rained at any point during the day.
Fri 11/05
Emma and Guido both had to work on Friday, so Graham and I were mostly left to our own devices. I was proud that I managed to both arm and disarm the alarm system correctly, and we went out for a bit of a walk through the inner city. It was actually pretty nice, and for all of Emma's talk about the "depressed north" I found that we didn't see considerably more closed shop fronts than we have in Reading. In fact, they have some pretty damn nice shopping centres and pedestrian zones in Hull.
Among other things we visited the BBC building where Emma works, and the local Debenhams because I couldn't resist checking out their luggage department (sad, I know). We discovered a place called "Waterhouse Lane", which we found endlessly amusing because Waterhouse is Mark's last name. For lunch we stopped at the local Burger King and I had the amazing revelation that a chicken burger from an American fast food company is actually the closest thing to Austrian schnitzel that I've ever eaten in this country. (Chicken Tendercrisp, your crunchy breadcrumb coating is awesome!)
Since both Graham and I tend to tire quickly and the weather was once again not particularly pleasant, we returned to base after only a couple of hours and spent the remainder of the afternoon reading, snuggling and sleeping.
In the evening we all watched a bit of tv together (and I was very intrigued by the show Episodes), and then played a game of Star Munchkin. I lost as usual, but at least I ended my existence as a psychic mutant cyborg bounty hunter. I seem to remember that the last time I played Munchkin with the guys I never amounted to much of anything since I never got any creature cards and thus never got a chance to level up.
Sat 12/05
Saturday we all went out for lunch together and then Graham and I accompanied Emma and Guido on their grocery shopping.
In the evening Emma threw a little house-warming party which involved two of her work colleagues popping over for a bit (a third was invited but apparently couldn't make it). We had a lot of fun playing with the Wii and laughing at people's silly motions while pretending to take part in Olympic sports. Somehow we ended up unlocking a knight outfit and my Mii got put into it, which was good for a lot of laughs. Nothing like doing gymnastics or synchronised swimming in full plate mail...
Sun 13/05
On Sunday we ended up playing with the Wii some more, after I had a look at our hosts' collection of games and commented on how I never quite understood what the deal was with all the Lego games. I mean, they make films based on games based on toys based on films? What? Emma and Guido explained that the best way to explain why they were fun was probably to simply let us try one out, and so we were soon whisked away into the magical world of Lego Harry Potter. And damn, it was fun!
We only stopped when it was time for us to go to the cinema and see Avengers Assemble. While I had only seen the Iron Man films leading up to it, I really enjoyed all the characters in this one. I think this is pretty much what a good superhero movie is meant to be: fast action, smooth talking, a villain who is no less interesting than the heroes and a healthy dose of fun. Without spoiling anything, I can say that Loki + The Hulk = Awesome.
In the evening we played some more games.
Mon 14/05
Not much to say about this one, other than that we got up fairly early and drove back home. It was pretty much the same as going up, only with one less break this time and without the getting lost part. And that was the conclusion of our adventure!
P.S.: Some photos can be found here.