We had a wonderful 2 week Easter Holiday.
On Monday, Sam came with me into my school to get me room set up. We got all my boards re-done and ready to set up for the next term. I did some planning and Sam organized and sorted out the supplies in the room. It was really good to get it all ready.
Tuesday, Sam was able to get work at a school that was open that first week and I went back into my school to do more planning. I went to the gym after school, Sam still wasn't feeling great.
Wednesday was a splurge day. We headed up to Oxford St in London. We went shopping for a few hours. Primark, Office shoes, Sports Direct, Oliver Bonas, we also went into the Disney store and there was a really cool set-up for the new Cinderella movie. We headed home to eat and drop our stuff, then headed up to Sloane Square in Chelsea to see Natasha to get our hair cut. It felt so nice to get all the dry, dead hair cut off. Natasha did a great job on both our hair. We were so happy with it.
Thursday Sam and I went to the grocery store to get everything we'd need for Easter dinner on Sunday, then I did some planning.
Friday morning we went to the gym, then in the afternoons I did some more planning. I got my whole first week all planned out and organized.
Friday night we met Ben and Laura up in Fulham. We had a great dinner of Mac 'n' cheese and then went to Fast and Furious 7. It was so good. They did a great job with it and there was a really nice ending and good-bye to Paul Walker. It was a great night.
Saturday we had a lazy day. We watched Bones and just relaxed at home. We also cleaned the house. It's never looked so good.
Sunday morning I got up and went on a shorter run, about 10 km. I'm tapering for my half marathon in a week. When I got home I had a quick shower and then we got down to business. Sam cut veggies for snacking on and I got started on the dinner. We got everything ready to start cooking later. Once everything was ready we started hiding eggs and chocolate for the Easter egg hunt. There was 136 chocolates around our living room. The ham went in at 12. We then got ready and had enough time to watch one episode of Bones before people started to show up. We had 13 people (including Sam and I) for dinner. When everyone arrived we decorated hard boiled eggs for an Easter egg fight later (Sam's family tradition). Everyone was eying up the chocolate laying around the room, so we said they could start the hunt. You should have seen how fast everyone moved. I don't think I've ever seen 11 adults move so quickly in my life. It was really funny. Once we finished the hunt we played Cards Against Humanity for a little while. At one point I had to get the rest of the dinner ready and Laura made dessert. Dinner was a honey and brown sugar glazed ham, party potatoes, and broccoli and cauliflower. It was my first time making a big dinner like that and it turned out really well. I was really happy and everyone said it was delicious. Laura made sticky toffee pudding for dessert which was also delicious. We all just relaxed and chatted for a little while after before everyone headed home. There was a little bit of clean-up, but everyone was really good about helping to clean up throughout the evening.
Monday morning we left home pretty early to tube out to Heathrow to pick up our rental car for the week. It was a cute little Citroen DS3. I was the driver for the trip because Sam isn't 25 yet, so she navigated. We roadtripped down to Cornwall in the beautiful sunshine. We stopped in Bristol for a couple hours just to check it out. We had a bite to eat, bought some books we'd been wanting from a little stand at a market. It's a pretty place and it was so warm and sunny out. We drove the rest of the way down to Hayle, the town in Cornwall that we were staying (along the West coast). We had rented a room through AirBnB with a lovely couple named Mary and Pete. They were so welcoming and interesting to talk to. They had a puppy, Mabel, and 3 cats, Storm, Prasha, and Safi. The room was very cute and the whole place was lovely. We just relaxed Monday night, chatted with our hosts and then watched a couple episodes of Bones. The internet wasn't super strong, so it was difficult to watch them. Safi was very cuddly and came and stayed with us in the evenings and the mornings.
Tuesday morning we watched an episode of Bones then went downstairs and were greeted by a lovely breakfast set out for us. We had tea, home-made granola with yogurt, and croissants with jam. We then walked out across the sand dunes down to the beach. Their house was in the last row against the dunes. It was a lovely walk out to the beach. Hayle is known for its 3 miles of sandy beaches, and it lived up to that. The beach was fabulous. White, fine sand, the tide was out and continuing out while we walked. It looks almost tropical, not at all like the UK. It was another gorgeous day. We walked out and back one direction from where we were staying. When we got back we called and book surfing for Wednesday then got our stuff together and drove into St. Ives. It's a really cute little place. The parking lot is up at the top of the town. We walked the very steep 5 minute walk down into town. We wandered a little bit but were both really hungry so we found a grill to eat at. It was really good food and we got a table right by the windows so we had a great view of the harbour/beach. When we finished eating we wandered a little more then when down to sit at the beach for a while. When we were sitting a stupid seagull flew over and pooped on us :( We were not pleased. We decided to head back to our place and read out in the sun in the yard for a little bit.
Wednesday morning we got up and headed to Godrevy where we were supposed to meet the people for surfing. The guy who ran the place happened to be there and told us that it had been moved to their other location because of the water, so we followed him down there. Turns out their other location is just a little further down the beach from the place we were staying. It was another gorgeous day as we were getting all our stuff; wetsuits, booties, gloves, boards. It's been a while since I've surfed and Sam has only gone once and we don't know the water so we decided to do a 2 hour lesson instead of just renting the equipment. It was a good choice. We were basically on our own but with suggestions and help if it was needed as we were put into the "advanced" group (as in have surfed before). The waves were as perfect as the day. They started off about 6-8 feet and by the end were 10+ feet. We had so much fun. Both of us got up and had some great rides. Sam stayed in a little closer with some other people that hadn't done much surfing and I headed out to the bigger waves with some others. By the end, even with the booties, my feet were super numb. When we took off our booties they were white...0 blood flow. Took a good hour and a bit to have them feeling normal again. After surfing we headed back up to Godrevy to have lunch in the cafe (which was recommended to us by Mary and Pete). It was really good. Then we did a little walk around the point to see the cliffs, which were gorgeous...reminded me of the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland a bit, we saw the beach that was covered in seals and the seals in the water, and we saw the Godrevy Lighthouse. It was really windy up on the cliffs so we didn't stay too long. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the backyard in the sunshine reading our books. We had a couple ciders too...tried the Rattler which is brewed in Cornwall. We spent a bit of time on our last night with Mary and Pete figuring out which was the best way for us to head back to London the next day. We had some interesting conversations with them. They are very nice people and their pets were wonderful. We definitely got our fill of animal love.
Thursday morning we took our time getting up, packing up, eating breakfast, and then we got on the road. We decided to stop in Bath on our way home. It was a good drive and another nice day. We had lunch out on the patio of a place in Bath when we got there. It was a really nice lunch and then we did a bit of a wander. We had been to Bath briefly last year but hadn't seen much of it. It's a really pretty place and has an interesting history. Most old buildings there have windows that were bricked up in the 17th century because of a window tax that was implemented. Some of them have windows painted on the bricks. We made the rest of the drive back with no problems...a little bit of congestion but no real traffic. We returned the car, shuttled back to Heathrow and took the tube back home. We watched a couple episodes of Bones then headed for bed.
Friday I headed into school to do another day of prep. I'm feeling a bit more ready, for the first week at least. My classroom now feels more like my room. I'm still freaking out about it. There's a ton of stuff that I need to figure out and learn about the system here. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.
Saturday was a very very lazy day. We did laundry and watched Bones and had an early night.
This morning we had to get up early to head over to my half marathon. It was sunny and warm when the wind wasn't there. The course was a really pretty one around the Thames and over 2 bridges. It was a double lap course. Sam was an awesome cheerer! I saw her 4 times around the course, including at the finish line. I felt like I was running really slow/dying during the run, but ended up running my best race every. I went in hoping to get under 1:50 (based off my runs over here I thought it was possible) but thought that under 1:55 was more likely. I ended up beating my old PB by about 8 minutes...I got 1:46. I was so happy about it.
We walked to the bridge to bus home. On our walk home we decided to stop at a new dessert place that opened up 2 blocks away from our house (up oh). I figured I deserved dessert for lunch after my run. I had a hot white chocolate chip cookie dough with ice cream and Sam had carrot cake.
We have since been relaxing and watching Bones. I am going to be sore tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
We out.
Lisa and Sam
Pictures to come.
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