(no subject)
Today was awesome. I had a lie in, and got up with no alarm around 11. Had a shower and sat around for a while, and then headed into York. I nipped into the office to leave a Chuck DVD for Terry and had chance to say hi to Sally, who I suspect lives in the office as she's always there if I pop in at the weekend.
Did some shopping (bought lightbulbs) and had a look for a coat I liked but failed (probably because I didn't try very hard).
While I was standing in WH Smiths reading an interview with Niall Quinn in FourFourTwo magazine, Ryan phoned, so I left the shop to talk to him as people had started looking at me as soon as I said hello. I was informed that he and Nikki were on Micklegate, which wasn't far from where I was, and luckily they were with Nikki's friend Rosie (who they're staying with tonight) so I didn't need to direct them to me which was good.
Was very happy to finally meet Nikki! We all sat at Starbucks for a while, incorporating happy hour (which Ryan renamed Frappy Hour and I have no idea why they weren't promoting it as such!) getting our half price fraps and just hanging out chatting. We weren't sure what to do next, and were just going to have a wander around the general tourist sites - the Minster, Clifford's Tower etc - but were sidetracked by the Tourist Information centre to see what time the Railway Museum closed. While there we saw a leaflet. A leaflet that intrigued us. The bottom half was covered by other leaflets. The top half was this:
What might this free fun have involved, you ask?
Slowly we were all convinced, one by one, that this would be an awesome thing to do.
We were right. The tour involves finding statues of cats around York. As the back of the leaflet informed us, the cat statues have been placed around York for over two centuries, with the intention of scaring off birds, mice and rats that carried the plague, by making them think real cats were patroling the area.
There were 16 cats to find, and when we parted ways so that the others could go back to Rosie's before going out for an evening meal, we'd found 15. I went to find the last one by myself so that I knew I'd seen it, because the others are probably going to find it tonight or tomorrow morning.
It's a great walk for tourists (even if the map is shit) because it takes you around the key places - the Minster, Clifford's Tower (we went up the steps and looked at the lovely car park view but didn't fancy paying £4 to get in), along the river and around part of the city walls. It's good if you're a local, because I had never noticed most of these cats before!
Favourite moments of the day:
* Nikki: "NEITHER OF YOU ARE POINTING AT A CAT!"
* As we all waved at a boat full of tourists cruising the Ouse, trying to get them to wave back (which eventually they did), Nikki yelled to them "There are two cats here! We're doing the cat walk!" and waved her Cat Walk leaflet.
* The man who tried to give us Cat spoilers and our reaction.
* Going into the Black Swan pub literally just for the purpose of finding the real life Bonus Cat and being stunned when he came to meet us at the stairs, as if he knew why we were there!
* Topping up Ryan's LA Rach Tour with the York Rach Tour. Where Bry had her wedding photos taken? Check! Where I met Harold Bishop from Neighbours? Check!
* The police man and woman who were amused by Nikki standing in the middle of the road pointing at Cat 2.
* If you are standing where these two people are standing:
Don't say things about the person making things with glass on the other side the window. They can hear you. Especially don't say something about "that lad" if it's a girl. Or that what she's doing is boring. Oops.
Very much looking forward to having an even bigger group of people to invade York in three weeks' time!
Did some shopping (bought lightbulbs) and had a look for a coat I liked but failed (probably because I didn't try very hard).
While I was standing in WH Smiths reading an interview with Niall Quinn in FourFourTwo magazine, Ryan phoned, so I left the shop to talk to him as people had started looking at me as soon as I said hello. I was informed that he and Nikki were on Micklegate, which wasn't far from where I was, and luckily they were with Nikki's friend Rosie (who they're staying with tonight) so I didn't need to direct them to me which was good.
Was very happy to finally meet Nikki! We all sat at Starbucks for a while, incorporating happy hour (which Ryan renamed Frappy Hour and I have no idea why they weren't promoting it as such!) getting our half price fraps and just hanging out chatting. We weren't sure what to do next, and were just going to have a wander around the general tourist sites - the Minster, Clifford's Tower etc - but were sidetracked by the Tourist Information centre to see what time the Railway Museum closed. While there we saw a leaflet. A leaflet that intrigued us. The bottom half was covered by other leaflets. The top half was this:
What might this free fun have involved, you ask?
Slowly we were all convinced, one by one, that this would be an awesome thing to do.
We were right. The tour involves finding statues of cats around York. As the back of the leaflet informed us, the cat statues have been placed around York for over two centuries, with the intention of scaring off birds, mice and rats that carried the plague, by making them think real cats were patroling the area.
There were 16 cats to find, and when we parted ways so that the others could go back to Rosie's before going out for an evening meal, we'd found 15. I went to find the last one by myself so that I knew I'd seen it, because the others are probably going to find it tonight or tomorrow morning.
It's a great walk for tourists (even if the map is shit) because it takes you around the key places - the Minster, Clifford's Tower (we went up the steps and looked at the lovely car park view but didn't fancy paying £4 to get in), along the river and around part of the city walls. It's good if you're a local, because I had never noticed most of these cats before!
Favourite moments of the day:
* Nikki: "NEITHER OF YOU ARE POINTING AT A CAT!"
* As we all waved at a boat full of tourists cruising the Ouse, trying to get them to wave back (which eventually they did), Nikki yelled to them "There are two cats here! We're doing the cat walk!" and waved her Cat Walk leaflet.
* The man who tried to give us Cat spoilers and our reaction.
* Going into the Black Swan pub literally just for the purpose of finding the real life Bonus Cat and being stunned when he came to meet us at the stairs, as if he knew why we were there!
* Topping up Ryan's LA Rach Tour with the York Rach Tour. Where Bry had her wedding photos taken? Check! Where I met Harold Bishop from Neighbours? Check!
* The police man and woman who were amused by Nikki standing in the middle of the road pointing at Cat 2.
* If you are standing where these two people are standing:
Don't say things about the person making things with glass on the other side the window. They can hear you. Especially don't say something about "that lad" if it's a girl. Or that what she's doing is boring. Oops.
Very much looking forward to having an even bigger group of people to invade York in three weeks' time!