What a lovely weekend! We set off at 9am on Saturday, expecting it to be chocabloc with traffic (hardly anything, on our side of the road anyway), we first headed to Oxford to meet up with the Katester! What fun we had. I wasn't sure when we got there whether we were going to be sticking around or just saying hi and bye again... Oxford really is bicycle city I tell ya! We met up with KT and then headed into Oxford. It was a really nice sunny day, only a bit nippy every now and then. We walked in the courtyards (I was tempted to walk on the grass, as aparantly Oxford has some odd rule that only people with a Masters Degree is allowed to do that... I didn't though). Had a rather yummy sandwich from a well known yummy sandiwich shoppe I had a greek salad sandwich, which I had t pick out all the goo I don't like (tomato's, olives, peppers... yeah I know, I should have just asked for cheese!).
So, after the sandwich we decided to go punting (for those of you who just giggled, it's a technical term for Narrow Boating in Oxford, something to do with the stick you use to push you along... think Italy). As KT is a student at Oxford she's allowed to use a punt for free! ROCK! AND as she's done it before she was ridiculously good at it! We however weren't very good at singing in a round - see video.



Once we punted we sat in a pub and had a drink before heading off. KT gave me a lovely gift (various LUSH gifts - we recently, on a visit in Manchester, discovered that we both LOVE Lush products.), and we said our goodbyes, promising to visit again soon. Ben is rather taken with KT, and if she were single I have no doubt his yorkshire hands would have been all over here, even more than they were... deary me.
So, off we went to London then. Chris was still begging to drive, but I wouldn't let him MUAHAHAAA! I love driving. Plus we get there quicker if I do it ;) We soon reached Twickenham, and woke Ben up (who slept the majority of the trip both there and back), and met up with the lovely WELCH! Our visit at that point was short lived as Chris and I wanted to get into London to watch a show. We weren't disapointed, we watched Guys and Dolls... standing up. OK OK, but the tickets were cheap and we pretty much walked in as the curtain was going up. I enjoyed it, I think Chris did too. Neil Morrissey did a cracking job at Nathan Detroit! I honestly didnt' expect him to be that good (wasn't that impressed with him in Acorn Antiques) but, yes, very good. Some parts even made me feel quite athome, with the cast having problems with dresses and even lines! But, it was all good fun.
We headed back to the Welch's and slept... awww, sweet sleep!
The next day was my Rachel overload day! Hehe, in a good way. Met up with Rachael Hilton somewhere (not sure where we were as the trains and
tube were all messed up), and headed into London. Two Rachels down and one to go. When we got there Rach and Ben had already met up. We met near the London Eye to take some publicity shots for the ComedySportz tournament this year. They wanted a shot of us 'passing the torch' olympic styleee. We had a go, although I'm not sure if we did it right. We'll see. So... now with my complete set of Rachel's we headed off into London for a little jaunt. We went to Covent Garden to watch a dreadful street entertainer who seemed to think all he had to do was run in slow motion to the soundtrack of The Matrix... well, it seemed to work cos when he shouted out "Who likes me?"... lots of people went "YAYYYYY"... ahem. We ate pasties that none of us were desperately impressed with.. but the highlight of Covent Garden was definately the free yogurts! MMMM, really nice they were too, the advertising works, I shall be looking out for them! Soon after that we showed the Hilton the brilliant Musicals shop (which wasn't open! grr), and she left us. Tears were shed. Well, not really, but it was nice to see her again anyway. Then we decided to head to Piccadily and get in line for the COmedy Store. We were in the line for about 2 hours! LOL, no joke, but it's SO worth it. Aparantly Chris was getting rather irate that we'd had to wait sooooo long to see the show, but it was such a good show he forgot all that. Ben got to see Paul Merton, a bit of an idol for him. Rachel had a conversation with Andy Smart, during the show, while he was on stage! Hilarious! Chris gave some fabulous suggestions. And everyone just had a fab time. We then walked the Wareing to her bus and headed back. Chris drove all the way home, and I had a little snooze. I probably could have stayed awake though I reckon had I been driving ;)
Well, what a lovely birthday weekend. We came back to a rather odd flat though, Dugg had had a party and things were in odd places, spent today cleaning up. Up early to the gym tomorrow, then work... back to the norm. Nice to have these little breaks though :)


Dead Partridge count from Manchester - London = 34.