Merry Christmas!

 I know its been a long time, and I will be surprised if anyone is still looking at this blog. But I will try to catch you up. 

  

December came and went too fast! I have been working full time at the store and trying to learn my job during the busiest time of the year. Working in retail I have learnt that Christmas does not mean holiday time and travelling to see family. Instead it means one day off and two very busy and stressful days before and after. Because of that, Pete and I stayed in Bristol for Christmas day, which although we had a great day eating and relaxing, it didn't quite feel like Christmas.

We didn't have a tree this year, but we had plenty of decorations, candles and lights

Advent candle from my mom

  

Pete was able to go and visit his family in Belgium for the week leading up to Christmas. Unfortunately I was working. But I did get the 22nd and 23rd off. Pete planned an escape to a small village called Ilminster. We stayed in this hotel below and played a lot of scrabble and explored the village. It was really nice to get away from Bristol and relax with Pete.

Lounge at the hotel.

Christmas lights downtown Ilminster.

Sunset from our room. We like sky pictures.

England has made me VERY pasty white.

Intense Scrabble game.

We played Christmas themed Scrabble.. The board pictured below is not our actual game, rather its what I imagined the game to look like and set up after our failed attempt. The closest Christmas word we got was Mary....

On Christmas eve I worked till 6 and then came home and put on a croc pot.. Not of food, but mulled wine. It was delicious! Pete and I then tried to wait till 10pm to talk to my family on skype and open our presents with them... but we were too eager and opened them around 8.... sorry mom! But we did watch them open their gifts, and it was really nice to see them all!

Pete made some great crepes in the morning and then we continued on opening gifts from Pete's family and each other.  We had an attempted skype conversation with Pete's family but the connection was really bad.

The rest of the day, we overdosed on chocolate, popcorn, cheese and crackers.  And of course we watched a very christmasy movie...... Star Trek! Not my first choice but was pretty good.

Christmas dinner we had a feast. 

While Pete basically did all the cooking in the kitchen, I set the table... Maybe not a fair trade, but I was there for moral support.

Pete hard at work.

This one is for my mom.... Look at his yorkshire puddings.. and they didn't fall.. Jamie Oliver recipe!

I hope you all had a great Christmas Holiday! We missed everyone and thought about all of you... except for my random follower in Germany.

and

Happy Birthday Dana!!

and tomorrow Happy Birthday Robyn

and the day after that Happy Birthday Sher, Auntie Judy and ME!

<3

A Visit from Mom and Dad

My parents came to Bristol last week, which was so much fun. Even though they were only here for 6 days, we still managed to see and do a lot.... of walking. These are all my moms pictures so you may have seen all of these photos.

Bristol Suspension Bridge

Clifton Village

Walking down our road to the shops.

Cream tea in Bath... Pete said that no one can come to England and not try this...

Which he showed me in my four visits prior to moving. But it was delicious!

The Royal Crescent

Bath Spas

And a trip to Wales, which is only a 15 min drive away, to see a castle.

I already feel like they were never here and am excited for their next visit. Or anyone else that wants to come ;)

After booking a week off work, I payed for it this weekend by working four shifts at the pub over two days and now have a full week ahead of me working at both places.

 So sorry for the lack of blog posts, but it might not get any better....

Guy Fawkes

Since the last blog post a few things have happened; Pete turned 24, I have started two part time jobs for the time being, and Max, Pete's good friend, came to stay with us for the weekend. 

One of my jobs is at a pub which I worked at last summer, and the other is at a department store called House of Fraser, which is kinda like Holt Renfrew. Although this is not what I was looking for at all, it is something to keep me busy and make money.  However the interview for the department store was with the regional manager and store manager, and during the interview I explained my degree and mentioned that I was interested in management and was just seeing this job as a stepping stone and experience. Later that night they called me and said I had the job but that they were going to give me the next supervisor position and then push me through to the manager in training position! So at least there is room to grow in this job.

 Also the sky has been seriously impressive this past week!

 This past weekend we celebrated Guy Fawkes night with fireworks, mulled wine, marshmallows and a bonfire.

 Actually cooking the marshmallows proved to be a challenge with our short sticks and the massive fire. Numerous arm and knuckle hairs were lost.

 Lucy went for the safer method, by using a lighter, which worked well besides the fuel taste.

And while Max and Pete tried to write their names with the sparklers, I took pictures on the wrong setting.. They were very disappointed!

Next week my parents are coming to visit! I am so excited to see them both and show them around Bristol. It will be so strange to have some of my life from home come here and see where I have spent a lot of time the past five years!

rainbow - ROYGBV

If I made a blog about every day it rained in Bristol.. well then this would be for one, updated everyday, and two, an extremely boring blog. However today was an exception. Today I was walking up the steepest hill in Bristol on my way home in the pouring rain and thinking how sick I was of this terrible weather. 

But then I got up to the top of the hill, turned the corner and saw the most vibrant rainbow.

While I was on my way home, Pete was also taking pictures from our flat of the rainbow.

Beautiful :)

a day trip to bath

Last Saturday Pete and I went on a drive to Salisbury via Bath to pick up our TV from a friends house. We have put off doing this drive for weeks now, but as the rugby finals were approaching Pete suddenly found the motivation for the trip.  We took the scenic route rather than taking the motorway (aka highway) and stopped in Bath to walk by the canal and around some parks.

Pete has a thing about jumping in pictures..

A view of Bath from the canal.

The canals were built all over England as a form of transporting goods between the cities. After a while the railways became the new source of transportation. Now the canals are used by people on holiday. Pete has a cousin that lives on a canal boat, which is more common than you would think. 

I love walking along the canal and seeing the homes they have made for themselves on these boats.

After walking by the canal we went into Bath and had some Thai food by the river and then continued on to get our TV.

I don't know what's with Bristol and hot air balloons, but they are always there and have become a symbol of Bristol.. You can see four of them in this picture.

To end the day trip we had a great view of the sunset for the drive home.

A perfect Saturday.

Pete said I should write more... but I don't feel like it.

Have a good weekend!