More England Travels :)

Hello all. . .no rants this time! Just a little note about our day away :)
So, I finally had a day off work and we took advantage of it by going with Mel and Mike to Cambridge for the day. Mel and Mike have a friend, David, who attends college in Cambridge (side note about that, The University of Cambridge is made up of all of these colleges which have their own individual staffs, courses and things like that but all of them make up the University - make sense? No, I know it doesn't, but that's the way it works!!!) So anyway, because he's a "member" of one of the colleges, we got to do some stuff that "normal" tourists don't get to do. First off, let me show you the college that David goes to which is called St Johns College (or just, Johns College for short):




On that last one you will notice a gigantic tower. One of the fun things that other people don't get to do and we did. . .is climb to the top of that tower :) Lovely little bits of trivia with that tower - during the Easter term (there are three terms in the College year - Michelmas, Spring and Easter) Undergraduates are not allowed up the tower at all, something about getting their results during that term. . .
That's the view and one of the gargoyles from HALFWAY up the tower. Getting there was relatively easy, except for the getting dizzy part (spiral staircase). But then came the next part of the journey which was a lot narrower and tighter. . .poor little claustrophobic me had to just keep moving cause as soon as I stopped the panic set in a little, but once we got there, it was well worth it!!!

See all of those people on the boats with the poles? We'll get to that in a second :)


Notice the cute little round church that's snuggled in there? That's called "The Round Church" (original aren't they these English people) and it was built in the 13th century (1200's) and it's still there!!!!This building is the John's College Library (the new new one, not to be confused with the new old library or the old new library)
So as you can see, the view was freaking awesome and well worth the panic caused by the stairs!!!!
The next stop was Kings College and the Kings College "Chapel". . .Building of this was started during the reign of King Henry the 6th and it was completed during the reign of Henry the 8th. We can't remember the exact connection but there's some connection to Henry (8) and Anne Boleyn (His second wife) and there is a screen there that has their initials entertwined carved on it (unfortunately you can't use your flash inside the church and that part was far too dark to get a good picture of). However I was able to grab some photos of the cool wall decorations:
Although the prettiest thing in the whole "chapel" was the ceiling (which Shelley says looks like a wedding cake):
Then there came the boats on the river with the long poles. . .I told you we would get to it. . .it's also known as "Punting" (which has nothing to do with golf Shelley) and we Punted!! Well, ok, we sat in the boat and got punted by David and Mike (yay for boys, see, they do have their uses!). Being punted along the river Cam was very cool. . .the only thing that was missing was the alcomohol (next time we're paying someone else to do the punting and then we're buying wine and drinking down the river) So here are some pics we took while punting :)

The above picture is the outside of Kings College Chapel :)

Above is the house in which the Master of the College (the head of the college - kinda like the Dean or something) lives, apparently the current "master" is a very lovely man. . .
This is Johns College.
Random doggie that was being punted and looked like it was "on point"
Mikey while he was punting, his hair is all windswept and heroic-ie looking. . .



Us on the boat :)
Anyway, now that I've just overwhelmed you all with photos, "Our time" in the living room - don't ask - is over so I'm going to finish up this blog and relocate to our room :)
Love to you all, missing you heaps!! We hope you are doing well!!
COMMENT!!!

Spilt Milk

So we went to see the excellent Milk on Tuesday night, Unfortunately we forgot to take tissues and Amber cried a lot at the end. It was a very good film and I was impressed, but the main emotion that I felt at the end was anger. I was ranting to Amber on the way home (thankfully as she expects this from me, she didn't complain) What exactly has changed in 30 years in the way that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are treated differently? I know that some people think that perceptions have changed a great deal and that the GLBT's of this world are accepted. I think that is just a big myth though. In Milk Proposition 6 (a law which meant that anybody suspected of having GLBT tendencies could be fired from teaching), is one of the main sub plots of the film. On November 4 2008, California passed proposition 8 which is a law that changed the State Constitution to read that marriage can only be between a Man and a Women In a nut shell it is the same thing, 'normal' people telling everybody else how they should live their lives. As if life isn't hard enough. So really how far have we, as a race really come in accepting what is different?

Cause we can

Hiya! How are all of you doing out there in the big bad world of the interweb? I don't actually have anything to write about, I just thought that, seem as I can, I would :)
It's the 10th of March today and in 5 weeks and 3 days on the 17th of April; Simon will be joining us!! Yay! He told us he would be getting here on the 16th, but he e-mailed us his itinerary on the weekend and no, his plane arrives at Heathrow on the 17th! So we will not be dragging him off for a party to celebrate my sister's birthday. (He will probably appreciate that as for some reason the idea of being in a room with me and my sister - especially when there is alcohol involved - scares him. Can't think why, just cause we're so ridiculously similar, that's no reason to be scared!!)
And then, two weeks after Simon leaves us; Shelley's parents arrive!! YAY!! Although, at the moment my work is being wanky and not giving me a couple of days off to visit with them. However I'm going to go discuss this fact with my head teacher tomorrow and see if we can't come to some sort of arrangement; after all, it's not very often you have family travel halfway around the world to visit you!
If you have been following our blog you will know of the Winchester Farmers Market with the yummy yummy food. . .we went back there on Sunday and stocked up. It was just as good as we remembered and we managed to get more Buffalo! (tastiest red meat we've found over here) So our cupboards are full of good food and are all very happy :)
We went to Giselle on Wednesday night which is a ballet about a young girl who dies of a broken heart and becomes a "Wilis" or sylph who dances from midnight to dawn and entices young men to their death. . .at least, that's the simple version of it. It was performed by the Moscow Ballet Company and it was just beautiful! Lovely costumes and pretty dancing and lovely company! It was an absolutely wonderful night out!!!
Anyway, I think that's pretty much all I can babble on about for now. . .Thank you for reading my non-blog blog. . .loves.