I fear I'm becoming a Londoner...

...before you panic, no not a fully fledged London yuppie, but too much of a Londoner. This weekend, I've come up to the midlands (where I lived prior to London) and the 'Londoner' changes have been in my face obvious. Evidence 1: I stayed with a friend one night and was astounded by the fact that you could go outside and hear nothing - there was no noise: no road traffic, no drunk people shouting down the road, no neighbours (it was a house, not a flat with thin walls), no sirens, there was just silence and nature. Evidence 2: (Same friend's house) I could not get over how big the place was - it just kept going and going. It's a decent sized house, but I was amazed. (I put this down to the fact that I basically live in one room (my lounge / dinner / kitchen) and this house was 5 bedrooms, with several reception rooms.) Evidence 3: Yesterday I went out with a friend and when buying us a couple of drinks was shocked at how cheap they were - half the price (at least) to what I'm used to. Evidence 4: I went to the movies with a couple of friends last night and the parking cost £1.50 for (around 2 1/2 hours) - £1.50? seriously?! I can barely park for a half-hour at that price!!! Evidence 5: I can park my car for free without fear of a parking ticket most places I go, but yet I still look for parking signs to tell me how much time I have and how much I have to pay. The evidence just keeps building. Oh dear. I think I need to leave London soon before I become a yuppie.
So.... I've come to the midlands this weekend (as stated above) on Thursday.

Thursday
I hate driving out of London. I hate being stuck in traffic. But I power through this hatred. And keep motoring (pun intended). When I left London the sun was shining brightly and it was wonderfully warm weather. The further north I got (keep in mind I only went 135 miles north), the worse the weather got. In fact there was a point the traffic slowed from 80-90 mph to about 40 mph because the visibility was so poor. I of course had to take a picture for you.

See how dark it is?! This is around 12 noon.

This picture is solely for my mother. My lunch on the journey north. I thought she's be impressed that I made a sandwich that was mostly green. This is her kind of sandwich.

I had my hair cut and my eyebrows re-shaped (they were getting a bit out of control again).

And stopped that night with a friend who was at their parent's house dog sitting one of the cutest dogs ever! Holly is a very energetic dog with lots and lots of hair. That night I decided she might like to see, so I pinned her hair back. If I had a pink bow, I probably would have put it on her, I'm sure Holly's glad I didn't have a pink bow

Friday I went to a Tapas restaurant with Nick and James and stuffed myself. I left with food all down my shirt and on my trousers - grrr. I guess I need to re-take the "how to eat with a knife and fork" class.

There was a pesky wasp that thought our food was lovely too. As I'm allergic to wasps / bees / flying things that have a nasty stinger thing, I kept jumping out of my seat and running away. The sun also decided to come out and shine in James's face. He tried out my stylish sun glasses. Nick commented that he looked like Elliott Gould from Oceans 13. What do you reckon?

After lunch I had an hour or so before meeting up for a drink with my old boss and friend Shirley. Shirley managed to get away without me snapping a photo - how'd that happen??!

Then I headed to Susan* and Ashley's house. We ended up getting a Chinese take away and going to watch Hancock at the cinema. Handcock wasn't what I expected of a Will Smith movie. It was ok and had some good parts. The filmotography (which I'm sure isn't a word) was hard to follow - a bit like watching Cloverfield - camera angels everywhere.

And that brings us to Saturday
Saturday morning was a lazy start. I headed over to Castle Donnington (the village I moved to London from) and visited with the family that now lives in my old house. They're soon to be moving from the house and are finding it a sad thing too. I'm telling you - it's a great house!!!

Then I headed to Heanor (30-40 minutes north of Castle Donnington) to visit with Ken. Ken's been and out of hospital having surgeries on his ankle. His last surgery was only a few weeks ago so he was being very good and staying off his leg. (I tried to entice him out of the house for some fresh air, but he resisted.)
John was there when I arrived, soon followed by Patty.* They had arrived back home late Friday night from a wedding in Portugal. Here's John and Patty showing Ken some wedding photos.

I left Ken's for Ilkeston (15-20 minutes away) to have dinner with Patty and John and a good natter. I ended up staying there till after 10 and then headed to Susan & Ashley's for the night. (They only live around the corner.) Susan was out with some friends Saturday night and Ashley was watching a film when I got back, so I joined him. Somehow we ended up playing with the cameras on our phones. I have no excuse. It was late. It was funny at the time.

Sunday morning was church. I went to my old congregation in Stapleford (15 minutes from Ilkeston). I was tickled by the adults doing actions to children's songs. It seems that each week the adults are being taught children's songs, complete with the actions. Here we're doing "I'm all wrapped up, tied up tangled up in Jesus". After church I was meant to head to Lincoln, about an hour and a half north of church and spend the afternoon with a friend, but the friend was poorly. Poo! Luckily I was invited out to lunch with Simon, Pam and their 2 little girls (who aren't so little anymore). It was good to catch up with their family as it'd been soo long since I'd last been able to spend any time with them.

After lunch I headed home. Through the traffic. Boredom. But got home at a reasonable hour (something like 6pm), and decided to work off the Chinese I had for lunch and do an exercise video. Now that was just plain silly on my part! And I suffered for the next few days :-\

*For those who don't know, here's the brief summary. When I came to England a family sort of adopted me, meaning they took me into their family like one of their own. They look after me and check up on me. They're called Patty and John - my "English" set of parents (I even brought some laundry up from London once to do at their house - true parent figures :-) I normally stay with Patty and John when I come up to the midlands. This week they were on holiday till late Friday night. Bummer. I really wanted to catch up with them as it's been so long since I was last up, but this is the only week I was able to take off work. Susan is Patty and John youngest daughter and she and her husband, Ashley, live around the corner and have kindly let me crash at their house. Clear as mud?