A Posh Time: Castle and Night on the Town

We saw Harry Potter this week. It was ok. Having never seen any of them or read any of the books, I wasn't too excited but Donovan likes Harry Potter so we went! It's funny because when you order popcorn at the movies here they ask you "sweet or salty?". Another thing I've been meaning to mention is "squash" and no I'm not talking about the vegetable. Squash here is like a concentrated juice that you have to add water to. I am obsessed with Orange Squash. It's like a dollar a bottle and you just pour a little bit in a glass, add water, and you've got a delicious drink! Not to mention it's like 3 calories!

We had a plan this weekend to go visit Donovan's friend Tarryn. We were going to leave straight from a meeting Donovan had because it was an hour closer to Tarryn's house. Unfortunately Taryyn called Friday morning alerting us that her soon, Keegan, had swine flu! We were disapointed but naturally understood! Do you know there were 55,000 case of Swine Flu in the UK LAST WEEK?! Crazy!

So Friday, we went to Warwick Castle! The history is very interesting and if you'd like to learn more on that click here: Warwick Castle History. But if you're anything like me, you mostly only care about the pictures and the gory stories! So here goes!

Naturally, we saw the castle rooms with their crystal chandeliers and fancy paintings. We climbed the towers (which we felt the next day in our legs--oww!) and saw the magestic view of the castle grounds. The the "people" inside the castle were made by Tussaud's so you know they looked real! But the greatest part was the tour of the dungeon! We were guided by live actors who really acted the part. We saw the torture equipment, tons of scary stuff, went through a maze of mirrors and Donovan even got his head chopped off! I've come to the conclusion that Dononvan just sticks out of a crowd so I better get used to him getting picked for everything. (Luckily, he's a good sport!) He was chosen by the guy to get his head chopped off and the guy lifted his ax and the lights went out and we were all sprayed with water! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed on the tour.

It's hard to believe how it would have felt to be a prisonor in those times. Most people had the plague to begin with...then they would have their tongues ripped out, their genitals cut off, or just hung to rot! In the gaol, prisonors were somtimes surived for years before dieing. There were inscriptions on the walls, only one small crevise for excrements to evacuate, and no light. There was even this little underground crawl space where prisonors destined for particularly harsh treatment were bundled into the small, damp and lightless pit below the ground. In this claustrophobic and solitary space, the wretched prisonor was...forgotten. Here is that space...



The only way anything could leave the gaol is this crevice:



People were hung and left to rot:


View from the tower:







Inside Warwick Castle:






The "toilet":


Inside the "toilet" (you can't tell but it drops reallyyyyyy far down):


This little girl would laugh and I thought she was really creepy:






Some falcon thing that would fly on command:





Beautiful ceiling:








So that was great fun! Saturday morning we received a call from Tarryn that her son didn't have the Swine Flu--it was a false alarm! So off we went! Tarryn is Donovan's friend from school in South Africa. Here is her and her husband, Bruce. They have two adorable children---Keegan and Shayla.



We had a plan to go to a fancy new restaurant in the town near them and were all going to dress in black and pink posh...just for fun! Apparently, this town is a little bit crazy and all the people dress up all the time...we saw a bunch of funny costumed people walking by and Tarynn said that someone last week at the restaurant dressed up as a boob. Yes, that's right...a boob! We met up with their friends Simon and Micky and had a great evening!

Us hot tubbing at night:


Out to dinner:


Black and pink posh:


Tomorrow we are off again to Torquay--staying at a Bed & Breakfast. According to facebook status' today, it was a beautiful day in NJ! Enjoy! Write again soon! Cheers!

Hellfire, tattoos, and clowns = the perfect weekend!

Well it has been an interesting week! Donovan got a sty in his eye and it got so huge and swollen but thankfully it has gone down!

On Friday we went to the Hell Fire Caves! (most of these next paragraphs are taken off the Internet) These caves were extended in the 1740’s by the infamous Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the notorious Hellfire Club. His aim was to provide an extraordinary addition to his landscape gardens, no doubt inspired by his Grand Tours of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Many of his fellow dilettantes were building great Estates and landscaping gardens and temples above ground but no others dared venture underground in this way. The chalk was used to build the main road from West Wycombe to High Wycombe (where we live). This also provided employment to the Villagers of West Wycombe following a succession of harvest failures. The achievement is a true feat of engineering and quite remarkable considering they were all dug by hand. You can still see the individual pick axe marks on the walls.
On his return from his travels Sir Francis established the famous Hell-fire Club which subsequently held chapter meetings in the Caves and whose members included Lord Sandwich, John Wilkes and other senior aristocrats and statesmen. Sir Francis later became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Benjamin Franklin was a close friend and visited West Wycombe often. During the secret Hell-fire Club meetings a lot of sh** went down! The "ladies", who attended the meetings, usually wore masks in order to remain anonymous, and with a badge with the words “Love and Friendship”. They had to be of a “cheerful, lively disposition to improve the general hilarity”. Often the "ladies" wore Nun outfits so no one would know who they were.

Here are some pics:

The church:


The hallways:


Freaky little children in the caves:


Ghostssss oooo shining faceeee (Dad)



That is Sir Dashwood's house:


The view from the mosoleum:


Entrance to Hell Fire caves:


Inside of the mosoleum:


The mosoleum:


Check out Sir William Stanhope! He was a member ;-)



The "meetings":


The River Styx:


This video is taken in the center of the cave which has a really high ceiling and where you can actually hold your own dinner party! This is located right under either the church or the mosoleum--I forget!


They caught a Donovan!


The outside of the caves:


Yummy milk shakes...I had the Homer Simpson one obvi--it was cookie dough flavor! Yummy!


What a great day! That evening, Donovan's friend Adam came in from London. We had chicken quesadillas for dinner and just had a nice evening watching DVDs and chilling out. The next morning, Donovan got a tattoo! It's a tattoo on his bicep of his fathers name, date of birth, and date of decease. Here are some pics:

Oww!



Donovan getting his 5th tattoo!!!





Eeek! I got a little light headed so I had to sit down. Guess my parents can relax that I'll never get a tattoo...

Anyway, on Saturday I worked at the pub for 8 hours. Adam stayed over again that night and we drove him to the train station this morning. Today we went to the circus! It was a last minute decision and I guess it was fate because when the clown needed to pick someone to throw knives at...out of the whole audience...guess who he picked?! You guessed it---Donovan! Now, it was not allowed to take picture or videos there but I snuck a few anyway...they are pretty crappy but hopefully you can get sort of an idea... (Donovan is the one in the white shirt and shorts...err...the one handcuffed to the white board...)









LOL! Donovan heard the lady who was assisting the clown say, "Could we have chosen a bigger gentleman?!" For those who don't know, Donovan is 6 ft 4.5 in (can't forget the half!). I think the boards where the knives were thrown were supposed to be on either side of his head...not his neck!

Well, that's all for now! I'll blog again soon! Cheers!

Just some random updates...

I have such motivation to write an entry now since people commented! And I just realized that I actually had a lot of comments on other entries...I just didn't have it set up that I get an email when I get a comment--oopsie! Fixed now though!

Today I got my money from working at the hotel--30 pounds! And they also said I can't work there since I don't have a work permit...bummer! I watched the Michael Jackson funeral thing on TV...I actually cried! But I feel like everyone was all anti-Michael Jackson calling him a pedafile and stuff until he died now the whole world loves him. I think he was innocent and I think he's really great and everything but it seems a little bit fake that all of a sudden everyone loves him sooo much. His daughter is really pretty. It was so sad when she spoke at the end.

I forgot to mention last weekend the Lions beat the Springboks but I think it's because we didn't go watch the game. I think I am the good luck charm for South Africa...LOL.

Me and Donovan played Rummy tonight and watched some British show about aliens coming and taking over little kids making them all stop and stare and say in unison "We are coming....we are coming..." British people are so wierd!

Donovan's Aunt Carol was really nice. She is actually Ouma's niece which makes her Donovan's cousin but she is 50 with kids so she's like an aunt.

I put an ad up for babysitting on some website and I got a message to babysit an hour away so I said no it's too far...and then the person asked me if I wanted to model for an adult spanking magazine....HAHAHHA...needless to say I did not reply.

Donovan's shoulder popped out of it's socket worse than ever! I put some icy hot stuff on it but it hurts him so much! I feel so bad for him!

In addition, yesterday was me and Donovan's one year anniversary! One year since the day we met. Oh, that fateful last day of the Twisted Tea tour at Miller's Tavern <3 Who ever said you can't find true love at a bar?!

I'm gonna go take a hot bath and get to bed. Good night!

Ouma is here!

Hi everyone...sorry I haven't written in over a week! Please leave comments if you read this because sometimes I feel like no one reads it so I have no motivation to keep writing LOL. Anyway, this week we went to this delicious sushi restaurant called YO! Sushi. It was so cool! You sit around this revolving strip and all different Japanese dishes pass you by. They have different colored bowls which tell you the price according to the color and at the end they count how many of each color you had.

Here is the revolving sushi:




Here is us at YO! Sushi:






I worked on Saturday night at the King's Hotel. It is a very posh hotel that is right next door to our village. It was a beautiful wedding and I was just helping behind the bar and with the catering. After my shift was over, I apparently had passed their test and they gave me papers to fill out to be a new hire...unfortunately those papers include my National Insurance Number, copy of my Visa, etc....which I don't have! So tomorrow I will probably get a phone call that I can not work there but at least I had one more night of work! It was pretty fun but definitely hard work! The bride and groom also got married at the hotel and I saw the bride right before she walked down the aisle trying to talk the flower girl out of crying! I felt so horrible for her...she was like "Please Mya...please....daddy has a chocolate for you...at the end of the aisle." And of course, once Mya entered down the aisle...all you heard was crying!

This morning we picked Ouma up at the airport. Ouma is Africaans for grandmother. What a lovely lady! I have found I have a lot in common with Ouma. She is from Jersey. I am from New Jersey. And we both love garage sales and bargains! In fact, today we went to the "boot sale" (British huge flea market/garage/yard sale thing) and got tons of bargains! We watched the Wimbeldon final...what a nail biter!!! I am so upset Roddick lost! And we had a lovely dinner at the Mowchak (you know that Indian restaurant that screwed up our doggy bag last time...). Well this time we were sure to ask for "take away" not "doggy bag", just reinforcing that WE will eat it...not our dog. At the end of our meal we got a complimentary drink...I couldn't help but wonder if he remembered us! After dinner we went for a drive through the Chilterns which is the area around us full of beautiful farms, countryside and gorgeous old homes, many of which are heritage homes...meaning they are protected and cannot be knocked down or added on to.

Here is Donovan and Ouma:



And one of Ouma's dreams is to have a house with a white picket fence...I told her my mom had the same dream. And she gave me beautiful beads made from a South African bush. They are very hip these days and thankfully, I'm ahead of the trend now... Here is me and Ouma and my beads!



I ran 5 miles 4 days this week! That was an accomplishment and hopefully I can keep that up! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous! Oh, and on Tuesday I worked a few hours at the pub and met a girl from Mountain Lakes, NJ!!!! Well, she moved there when she was 10 years old and lived for a while. Also met some nice guys who had been to New York City and one who was apparently born in Arkansas but was definitely 100% Welsh because I could not understand a WORD he said...especially when he kept referring to Syracuse! Seriously ask a Welsh person to pronounce that word---it's impossible!

This week me and Nat finalized our Eurotrip (well, minus our hostels in Rome). Nat will arrive on July 28th from Dublin and we will do London. Then we will go to Paris for a few days...then Rome...then Venice...then I will go back to Munich with Nat and spend a few days and then back here! I should definitely have a few interesting blog entries from that trip...to say the least! We are flying everywhere but we have one night train from Venice to Munich.

Tomorrow we drive Ouma to Auntie Carol's house which is about 2 hours away...looking forward to meeting more of Donovan's family! All of Ouma's siblings are still in Jersey and she will be spending 3 weeks there. She hasn't been there in 19 years! Her family is so excited for her visit! After her time in Jersey, she will stay with us another night or two before returning to South Africa.

And thinking of differences in culture from here to the States...in the States, when you walk down the street you either have people beeping at you or Mexicans saying "Heyyy Mommyyyy" and here you still have beeping but the cat calls are more like "Afternoon!"

Oh and the ice cream man comes around everyday and one day I got a "Nobbly Bobbly" which is my new favorite ice cream! I have no idea what it is but it's delicious!

We also saw "Ice Age III" which was AMAZING! And I've never even seen the first two!

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July! The only thing they had here was some British guy on saturday morning cartoons making fun of Americans...not so much fun!

No more random thoughts at the moment and I've been up since 5:30am so I'm going to bed...cheers!