Summer '14 Review Week 1
As many of you may know, I went home to the UK this summer. So here is my run down of what happened.
[Week 1]Flight to Hong Kong
There seemed to be an abundance of 1st flyers on the plane, with surprised yelps on take off and what I can only describe as cries of fear when we hit turbulence later on in the flight. So it was a bit weird for me. I was sat next to a mum and her kid, who was quite noisy throughout most of the 5/6 hour flight. But since it was a short flight I didn't say anything. I watched "Noah" which was decent enough, no where near as preachy as I expected it to be. We would have landed early, but we got stuck in a holding pattern because we were early.
Flight to London
Before I even made it onto the plane I got confused with my time zones and thought I was running late for my plane when in fact I had loads of time. Swapped seats with someone who wanted to sit with their friends, I was still on the aisle so I didn't mind. Watched "the Lego movie", "Robocop" and "Captain America: the Winter Soldier". The first two I had seen before and had on as "let's attempt to sleep" movies.
Arriving in London
We landed 30 minutes early, but by sod's law my baggage didn't turn up on the belt at luggage claim. After a while it turned out that there was a good 20 of us without baggage and, after some hunting, they found everyone's bags. Yay~ So I ended up being an 30 minutes late to meet my Dad.
Staying at Dad's
So my first day was a lazy day. I sorted out a SIM card for my old handset and just lazed about the house. The second day was when things ramped up, I went for a run in the morning (just 10 minutes), met a friend for lunch and gelato then met a friend for dinner.
My nieces were at my Dad's house too that night. So the next morning was a bit chaotic as there was a 2 and 4 year old running around when I woke up. I played with them in the morning and once again, I went out for lunch. This time for a picnic at Potters Field Park right by Tower Bridge. Lou brought the cutest picnic basket and had supplied all the food herself.
She invited me to her wedding despite knowing I wouldn't be able to make it (loved it though, the thought meant a lot to me) and we caught up with Looby as well.I headed back to Dad's for a bit of calm time, which wasn't that calm thanks to my nieces but it wasn't long before I was out for dinner with other old school friends. The day after was super manic but also amazing fun. I went to Thorpe Park with my Dad. Here's some photos of what we did
This is Swarm, the newest ride. The first 6 rows in the train looked forwards, the last 2 rows looked backwards. So you could queue for a bit longer to go backwards. We did it twice, both ways.
This is Stealth, a catapult ride that launches you at 80mph (130km/hr). It has a bad habit of breaking down.
This is Saw, based off the horror movies. It's got lots of violent and sharp turns to avoid danger.
This is Detonator, my favourite of the thrill rides (aka not coasters) which has had a paint job since 2 years ago. It's been re-themed as part of the new Angry Birds Land (bye bye Pirate Land) and so has been assigned the Black Bomb Bird.
This is Inferno, the only underhang coaster at the park, themed around a volcano, escaping it perhaps? Not sure xD
There were more rides, but I think I did videos of them, not photos ^^; We had a pizza buffet for lunch and basically skipped dinner. So you think that after I'd have a calmer day to follow right? Right?? Wrong. I had another run in the morning before we headed down to my Grandparent's house at the coast. It was a bit of a happy un-birthday party, with more cake than I expected!
Rock cakes!
Cherry and coconut cake, my favourite!
Lemon drizzle cake... I don't like lemon... so I let everyone else eat this one.
Coffee and walnut cake... not a big coffee fan either. I like the smell but not the taste. Dad loved it though!
After the cafe stuffing session it was back home? Nope, off to Bluewater, a huge shopping centre. I met friends for dinner and then it was off to the cinema to see "Guardian's of the Galaxy"! I am ashamed to say that I don't remember much except that I loved Groot. It was just too much crammed into one day for me to remember much of it. I had to stay round Lauren's house after since we didn't get out the cinema until about 11pm. And finally the first Sunday of the first week. I hopped on a train to London and once back I was faced with an oncoming BBQ! The nieces were over again, this time with my step-sister and her husband, as well as an Aunt and Uncle and cousin. Well, it's more complicated than that, but that's what we say! Anyway, this "cousin" actually lives in Tokyo with his wife! I'd never met him before, and we almost hilariously spoke Japanese to each other for about 10 minutes. I played with the kids, we'd blown up a dingy to use as a paddling pool!
That was my 1st week back home! I will do the 2nd week when I can!
[Week 1]Flight to Hong Kong
There seemed to be an abundance of 1st flyers on the plane, with surprised yelps on take off and what I can only describe as cries of fear when we hit turbulence later on in the flight. So it was a bit weird for me. I was sat next to a mum and her kid, who was quite noisy throughout most of the 5/6 hour flight. But since it was a short flight I didn't say anything. I watched "Noah" which was decent enough, no where near as preachy as I expected it to be. We would have landed early, but we got stuck in a holding pattern because we were early.
Flight to London
Before I even made it onto the plane I got confused with my time zones and thought I was running late for my plane when in fact I had loads of time. Swapped seats with someone who wanted to sit with their friends, I was still on the aisle so I didn't mind. Watched "the Lego movie", "Robocop" and "Captain America: the Winter Soldier". The first two I had seen before and had on as "let's attempt to sleep" movies.
Arriving in London
We landed 30 minutes early, but by sod's law my baggage didn't turn up on the belt at luggage claim. After a while it turned out that there was a good 20 of us without baggage and, after some hunting, they found everyone's bags. Yay~ So I ended up being an 30 minutes late to meet my Dad.
Staying at Dad's
So my first day was a lazy day. I sorted out a SIM card for my old handset and just lazed about the house. The second day was when things ramped up, I went for a run in the morning (just 10 minutes), met a friend for lunch and gelato then met a friend for dinner.
My nieces were at my Dad's house too that night. So the next morning was a bit chaotic as there was a 2 and 4 year old running around when I woke up. I played with them in the morning and once again, I went out for lunch. This time for a picnic at Potters Field Park right by Tower Bridge. Lou brought the cutest picnic basket and had supplied all the food herself.
She invited me to her wedding despite knowing I wouldn't be able to make it (loved it though, the thought meant a lot to me) and we caught up with Looby as well.I headed back to Dad's for a bit of calm time, which wasn't that calm thanks to my nieces but it wasn't long before I was out for dinner with other old school friends. The day after was super manic but also amazing fun. I went to Thorpe Park with my Dad. Here's some photos of what we did
This is Swarm, the newest ride. The first 6 rows in the train looked forwards, the last 2 rows looked backwards. So you could queue for a bit longer to go backwards. We did it twice, both ways.
This is Stealth, a catapult ride that launches you at 80mph (130km/hr). It has a bad habit of breaking down.
This is Saw, based off the horror movies. It's got lots of violent and sharp turns to avoid danger.
This is Detonator, my favourite of the thrill rides (aka not coasters) which has had a paint job since 2 years ago. It's been re-themed as part of the new Angry Birds Land (bye bye Pirate Land) and so has been assigned the Black Bomb Bird.
This is Inferno, the only underhang coaster at the park, themed around a volcano, escaping it perhaps? Not sure xD
There were more rides, but I think I did videos of them, not photos ^^; We had a pizza buffet for lunch and basically skipped dinner. So you think that after I'd have a calmer day to follow right? Right?? Wrong. I had another run in the morning before we headed down to my Grandparent's house at the coast. It was a bit of a happy un-birthday party, with more cake than I expected!
Rock cakes!
Cherry and coconut cake, my favourite!
Lemon drizzle cake... I don't like lemon... so I let everyone else eat this one.
Coffee and walnut cake... not a big coffee fan either. I like the smell but not the taste. Dad loved it though!
After the cafe stuffing session it was back home? Nope, off to Bluewater, a huge shopping centre. I met friends for dinner and then it was off to the cinema to see "Guardian's of the Galaxy"! I am ashamed to say that I don't remember much except that I loved Groot. It was just too much crammed into one day for me to remember much of it. I had to stay round Lauren's house after since we didn't get out the cinema until about 11pm. And finally the first Sunday of the first week. I hopped on a train to London and once back I was faced with an oncoming BBQ! The nieces were over again, this time with my step-sister and her husband, as well as an Aunt and Uncle and cousin. Well, it's more complicated than that, but that's what we say! Anyway, this "cousin" actually lives in Tokyo with his wife! I'd never met him before, and we almost hilariously spoke Japanese to each other for about 10 minutes. I played with the kids, we'd blown up a dingy to use as a paddling pool!
That was my 1st week back home! I will do the 2nd week when I can!