OK, Easter. As announced in my last post I was going aaaall over England. Considering I was doing a lot of travel by rail, I feel obliged to say that I am very impressed with how well the English rail system works considering all the bad things one hears about it. I only missed one connection (and still only arrived half an hour later than planned) and had to get on one rail-replacement bus (and still arrived on schedule). First things first, on Monday the 30th March I traveled across to Liverpool. My uncle Dan kindly picked me up at the station and took me back to their lovely house on Mossley Hill where I spent a few hours relaxing and reading before the red-haired bundle of energy a.k.a. my cousin Flora came back from school.
This was the beginning of never-ending colouring sessions, visits to the field across the road and discussions about boyfriends, embarrassing parents, eating rabbits (preferably not actually), and many other interesting topics. And of course early morning violin practice including a private concert while I was still in bed and barely awake at about 7.30 in the morning. Good times! (Yes, seriously) Tuesday and Wednesday I spent a few hours each day wandering around the centre of Liverpool and visiting some museums and galleries (and a few shops of course). Tuesday I went to the Fashion and Sport exhibition in the Walker Art Gallery and also saw the exhibition of the pictures of George Melly whose autobiographies I am now reading and thoroughly enjoying even though I really know nothing about him (and after reading them I will probably know more than I wanted to know). I then carried on down to the world museum where I had a look at the football exhibition. Quite interesting but I am not interested enough in football (especially not the English league - if the Swiss league had featured more often however...) to find it especially interesting. I also went to FACT where they were running a swop shop where you could basically take something along and swap it for something else. Some things that were there you could only use there and some things you could borrow and had to take back. Dan had given me two CDs to swap. One of them I kept for myself and the other I left there although I did not take the book with me that I really wanted as it was a rather large book about spying and secret stuff written in about the 60s - it was GREAT! But my baggage was very limited so I decided to leave it even though it almost broke my heart. Thankfully I then discovered Bold Street, which I also fell in love with as it has lots of fantastic little shops on it and also a not so little Oxfam shop, which I spent quite a while in. Charity shops have quite generally become one of my new interests even though I hardly ever buy anything (thankfully or my room would be full of randomness). On Tuesday evening (I think - to be honest I might by lying about when I did what but who cares) Dan and I went to the theatre - lets make it short and painless: thanks to a few glasses of wine we had the odd giggle but actually the theatre was rubbish. It was supposed to be a farce and was originally written by someone who Andy approved of but whoever the theatre company was had ruined it. Wednesday I made my way down to Albert Dock through a few shops (mainly part of Liverpool One - the huuuuge and fairly new shopping area down near the water) to go the Tate and the Slavery museum. Last time I was in Liverpool I went to the slavery museum and it was full of schoolkids. Thankfully this time it was not and I enjoyed it much more. In the Tate I went to look at the special exhibition by Glenn Brown. There were one or two pictures I quite liked but I was generally not impressed as everything was rather sci-fi and had totally unfitting names usually with some sexual connotation even if the picture was in no way sexual. Thankfully I did not have to pay. On Thursday it was time for the longest part of my journey: Liverpool to 
Bexhill-on-Sea to see Nanny Peggy. This was the journey where I missed my connection but it only added on 30 minutes to my journey so that was fine. Seeing Nanny Peggy again was wonderful, the weather was nice and the food abundant and tasty. On Friday we went to Rye and had a wander and lunch in the same restaurant as always (Kent hop sausages, mash and green beans followed by warm chocolate fudge cake with ice cream) and then we went to the arts and crafts shop and bought some wool as I had decided I needed further entertainment and was going to have a go at knitting (I had not knitted since primary school). The scarf is now completed and I am very proud of it as it is rather nice. Too bad the weather is so warm and I can't wear it. Saturday we were going to go to Eastbourne but then the weather wasn't too great so we hung out in Bexhill and had fish and chips and a look in every charity shop (and there are quite a lot). The sun had come out by lunch time and in the afternoon I went for a walk along the front and NP headed back to relax. The evenings w
ere taken up by having a good chat while watching television and knitting. Sunday we went down to the fron for a walk together and then all of a sudden the sea mist came in and Bexhill disappeared but we still found our way to the Northern for Sunday lunch. In the evening we went for a little walk around the Manor Barn gardens. Or was that Saturday? I don't remember. On Monday it was time for the shortest bit of my journey from Bexhill to London to stay with Vicky and Johanna for a few days. I fall in love with London every time I go. It is so vibrant yet quiet in the right areas, so multicultural yet still always the same, and everywhere you look there is something happening. Tuesday I went to the V&A where there is a fantastic exhibition about hats. I spent about three hours in the V&A wandering up and down and around and around looking at exhibitions on fashion, photography, jewellary, classic art, modern art, and also immensely enjoying their museum shop - although I did not buy anything! How restrained. From there I walked up to Harrods, which I dipped into as it is worth it just for the atmosphere and to see the people buying small things just to say they had done so. Well I can now say I walked through, and that will have to do! I then walked back aloong towards Kensington High Street past the Royal Albert Hall where there was a photoshoot with burning cars going on to Vicky's office to meet up with her to go the cinema with Johanna. We saw Duplicity, which I think they enjoyed more than I did but I do like Julia Roberts even if she is looking skinny for her age and also whatshisname Clive Owen. We then went out for a deeeeelicious dinner at a very nice restaurant - I especially remember the dessert (what a surprise), which was Eton Mess i.e. rhubarb, lots of whipped cream, and crushed up bits of merengue mixed up together, yummy! On Wednesday I wandered up to Portobello street and then just carried on wandering until I had circled round back to Kensington Gardens where I sat for a while in the sun reading my book and watching people and worrying that a bird might poo on my head as I was sitting under a tree. I then went back to Vicky's office to interview her for one of my assignments. Very interesting it was as well even if Vicky was rather daunted by the prospect of being interviewed about her job. That evening we were invited for supper with Mike and Philip where we also got to see a video of their cruise to the antarctic, which was very interesting and impressive (especially the landscapes and the fauna). Thursday I got stuck even further into the tourists (it was Easter week so London was full of people) and went to Nelson's column, the National Portrait Gallery, Covent Gardens, and then Oxford Street. Phew. It was a lot to take in but I loved it all! Then it was already Friday and time to move on again to Waldringfield (Suffolk) where my other grandparents are to spend the Easter weekend with them. This meant many walks down to and along the river, a lot of time to read and the odd trip to a farm shop or Woodbridge. Mum and Mark joined my in Waldringfield on Sunday so things got more lively (or should I just say louder?) then. Jill and Barrie joined us for pub lunch on Tuesday and on Wednesday it was time to go back to Nottingham. Simon was in Ipswich with his family for Easter and kindly gave me a lift back to Nottingham by car, which was very nice as it would have taken me a lot longer, so, Simon, I am very appreciative.Since then I have got stuck back into work as much as possible and have been going swimming and to the gym, been to a few committee and other meetings, and even a lecture. I have about a ten different assignments of one kind or the other and exams coming up too but a big part of my thoughts are spent thinking about my research project, which I am really looking forward to so I worry that it will not work out as I hope it will. Ah well.
I am planning to be in Switzerland from around the 5th to the 19th July and need to book cheap easyjet flights asap. Might do that now. Gosh already half past nine. There is much more I could write about but I will leave it for now and (as always) try and write another post sooner than usual.
xxxxx
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