A Pretty Fine Weekend

Kris and I took this past weekend as a bit of a rest and rejuvenate from a busy week; it was the end of my first full week of classes, and Kris' second week of work.  The fun surprise this week was her coworker fell ill with a chest infection and was in bed recuperating for most of the week.  Unfortunately, that left Kristin running around, as she puts it "like a one armed poster hanger".  She managed well and everyone at the clinic recognized how hard she was working and the great job she was doing.

Last Saturday night we ventured out to the next town over, Nottingham.  To set it in perspective, if they were to build a bypass to get from A to B faster, while completely ignoring those who live at C, which is located right between A and B.  A is Leicester, B would be Nottingham, and Loughborough is the lowly C.   Definitely the smaller sibling of most of it's neighbours, all except Quorn, but that's getting ahead of myself.

So we headed off to Nottingham, because a little known band from a small Ontario town was playing that night.  We found ourselves in the middle of about 500 energetic fans of Walk Off The Earth.  They played a great set, to a very appreciative crowd.  They really are as talented live as they appear in their videos.  They played many of their original hits, but also several really well done covers, and, in an homage to the bit that made them famous, a mashup played as 5 guys on 1 guitar.

Without any pushing or fighting, we were able to have these seats

It was fun to see a super talented Canadian band outside of Canada, where their popularity is just starting to grow.

We only managed to get ourselves lost twice on the way home, stupid GPS telling us to go to the middle of a nothing road called Ashby, rather than, oh I don't know Ashby Road, where we live and have searched a dozen and a half fricken times.  Alas it was a scenic detour, and we had little to do on Sunday.

Sunday we managed some running around and tidying up of the apartment before we finally set off to have our first British Sunday Roast to the lovely village of Quorn (In the Bypass illustration this would be D, a place that no one from A, B or C would ever have interest in getting to quickly).  The pub was established sometime around 1750, and has been operating in some capacity ever since.  The town is quite small, but quaint to walk around, and has a few decent geocaches we were able to locate before we sat down for dinner.

Kristin was content with just roast beef, but for just 60 pence more, you could have all four meats that were on offer that night, so my pate included roast beef, ham, lamb, roast pork, and for unknown bonus, a really tasty sausage.
The yorkies were as large as our head, and Kris is even washing hers down with a local Cider.  After 5 years, I'm finally making headway on the beer front with her.

One other joy we had on Sunday, while at the Grocery store (it's like the US here, where booze is sold in the grocery store), I came across something I haven't seen since the 6th of September, and have been searching for ever since.

While normally I'd be most excited about the scotch, in this case the notable thing in the above picture is the tiny can of Ginger Ale.  Scheweppes no less.  It's not quite a Rye and Ginger, but finally setting my hand on a ginger ale for the first time in a month, I'll just have to accept a blended scotch as my 'bar spirit'.

Now that we're getting into a more normal rhythm, we've also started to look at options for future travel.  This coming weekend, we'll be celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with Robyn and Whitney (her gf, not my sister) in London.  The following weekend we hope to drive up to the Lake District and tour Hadrian's Wall, and at the end of October, we're going to Venice for our anniversary.
No guarantees the mid-week posts will be more exciting than the daily grind, but we have a few adventures planned for the rest of the month.
Stay tuned.

Miss you all

Justin & Kristin