BikiniBound's Diary

Hey Kimberly!!!
Wow I am soooo jealous. Especially after all your pics I saw when we visited. I bet it is just absolutely gorgeous in person. Impress on Margaret how she really needs to come and see us here, that way the Omega 3's could all be together for a nice visit! LOL
Enjoy the rest of your vacation.
Catch ya later.
 
Hey Everyone! :hug2:
Our last day in London today. :cry: Thought about going to Wimbledon, but we would've had to get up at the crack of dawn and wait in line for hours on end to MAYBE get a grounds pass. Since it's opening day, and beautiful out, I doubt it would've happened. We have done other things instead. Took a lovely stroll through Regent's Park. H was completely impressed--as was I. It really is stunning along the main boulevard--gorgeous English style gardens. Unfortunately, H left the camera at the hotel (yes, I'm blaming him. :D ). Currently in between Leicester Square and Covent Garden. We also stopped by the crosswalk on Abbey Road where the Beatles recorded their album of the same title and took the album cover pic. :D

Had a FANTASTIC time with Margaret and her husband yesterday. Both H and I really enjoyed ourselves. We went to an old English country house and Ricmond park (and a great pub later on). But the best part of it was just talking with Margaret and her H. He is a really nice man with a brilliant sense of humor. My H commented that they are both very bright people, and I have to agree. I will confess that I cried at the train station last night when we said goodbye. I thought it would be the last time I'd see her until who knows when. But then halfway to the hotel H discovered he'd left one of his favorite books in their car. So now we will see each other again briefly tomorrow when we stop in her town to pick up the book after we rent our car from the airport. :)

Margaret took it easy on us yesterday as we were just beat from all the walking we've been doing everyday. And, she gave me a pedometer like hers and a WW calculator so I can see how many calories I've burned from the walking..lol. So far today we've done over 11,000 steps, and nearly 5 miles. Stopped for tea and shared a piece of strawberry cake (layered with cream and almonds), so it's a good thing we're walking a lot..lol. The cake was delicious, and made me feel better for paying £2 ($4) for a teabag and a small pot of hot water. :eek: :D
 
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Glad to hear you've been enjoying yourself. Back to good old US of A, huh? Safe trip home, Kimberly!
 
Im glad to hear you are having an amazing time:) Im sure you will see Margaret agian and even if you don't you got somethign none of us did. You got to see her and meet her in person and have some amazing memorible times with her! That can't be replaced:)!!!
 
It will be nice seeing you briefly tomorrow when you pick up the book on the way out of London. I was missing you when I found the book this morning and thought "I'll PM and suggest that they head this way".

Back to good old US of A, huh?
Click to expand...

Kimberly will not be heading back to the USA yet - she extended her stay in the UK (but is leaving my area) and will be driving up towards the north of Scotland over the next few days. Her time on the forum will continue to be intermittant for a while yet.

I have to say that we have had a brilliant time together. Kimberly is every bit as wonderful and enthusiastic in real life as she is on the forum. No-one would believe it but we were all having such a good time yesterday that we forgot to eat and then when we realised we were hungry we found that the kitchen in the pub had closed and there was a mad dash to get them to the train on time!!!! We are all rather partial to our grub - and not the kind of people who would ever normally forget to eat at mealtimes!!!!!
 
I'm glad your trip has gone so well. I have a friend who lives not too far away from London, and I'm hoping to go visit her after I graduate college next summer. w2g with all the walking!!
 
Hope you found Cambridge ok and did not find the M25 too traumatic. I bet you will enjoy seeing how Grantham has changed. Think of me as you pass through Newcastle.

I felt quite sad as I watched you turn onto the motorway at the roundabout and head away from the London area. I am going out walking in a minute. I will go past where we met up yesterday as I walk down that road towards the river. When I return homewards from the river I walk up the road that we drove up towards the roundabout.
 
I just received your post card! Thank you so much!! It put a smile on my face to know that you thought of me. I'm interested to know what type of pastries they had! lol. I'm trying not to eat those type of things, lol...but I love to make them! heehee. Hope you are having a blast!
 
Since I think that you are heading homewards on July 2nd - I suspect that you will be finished with Scotland and heading south for your visit to Cornwall. Time really does fly! I hope that you have enjoyed Scotland and that you have got to do all the things that you wanted to do. I still cannot believe how much you squashed into your week in London. Enjoy Cornwall.
 
Have a safe journey home - hopefully not marred by screaming infants with inconsiderate parents who have done nothing in the way of preparation for the journey - and have therefore in reality been the ones causing the disruption.
 
Hey Everyone!

I'M BAAACK.

First I want to thank all of you for visiting my diary in my absence. I can't believe I didn't get on here for almost 2 weeks..lol.

We arrived at home just before 1am on Thursday morning--exhausted.

After leaving London, we took the Underground to Heathrow airport, rented a car (Vauxhall Corsa), Vauxhall and drove to Margaret's town to get H's book. Had a bit of trouble with the English roads--they can be hard to navigate if you don't know your way around.

Had a quick meet up with Margaret and then took off for Cambridge where H's Aussie friend's sister lives with her fiancee who is a professor there. She works as a lawyer and commutes 2hrs each way to London everyday. :ack2: But as she is pregnant, that will soon stop. We spent the night with them and had a great time--ordered out Indian and watched this British show called "Little Britain." It's absolutely hilarious, and I am going to see if I can order it online. I had already been to Cambridge in the early 90s, but obviously H hadn't, so we walked around and saw some of the colleges. The architecture there is really impressive--but the streets are made for pedestrians and bicyclists--not cars..lol.

The next day we headed out for Grantham and Harlaxton College where I studied abroad (it is the British campus of my U.S. alma mater). Harlaxton Manor We found it with no trouble, but found the front gates closed, so we stopped and had lunch at the pub across the street. I called the college and learned that all traffice now has to enter from the side as a new security measure since 9/11. Got a tour of the manor and walked around the grounds. Things are a bit nicer since I was last there in '94, as they've put a lot of money into repairs and restoration.

Made a few calls to get a b&b, and then spent nearly 30min trying to find the stupid place...lol. It was a really nice room, but no attached bath (even though we paid $110 for it. The hostess was nice, and the full English breakfast was good. Walked to the high street and had dinner at a pub that was running a great deal--2 meals for $14. We both got steak that was really good.

In the morning we did a load of laundry at a laundromat. It cost us $5 to wash, and $10 to dry it!! :svengo:

Then we headed up to Margaret's old stomping grounds. But we didn't stay in Newcastle, we stayed in nearby Sunderland which is right on the North Sea and very nice--at least our b&b was--right across from the water. Got a good deal there--attached bath, renovated room, awesome English breakfast--all for $84. Our host was really nice and a great cook. We had black pudding. Black pudding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for the first time. We both liked it, even though it is really kind of gross when you think about what's in it. :D In addition to that, our breakfast consisted of toast, sausage, bacon, tomato, baked beans, mushrooms and hashbrowns. For a pic, click here: Full breakfast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dinner was Italian. I had canneloni. It was good, but a bit pricey. We walked along the shore afterwards. I got in some good mileage the first three days of our car tour--not the 10-12mile per day avg like in London, but I was still getting in around 5-8 miles per day those first few days.

After our huge breakfast, we drove along the M-68 into Scotland. That road is riddled with speeding cameras, and winds around very big hills. It was very beautiful, however. We were heading to Rosslyn Chapel http://www.rosslynchapel.org.uk/ (if you've read or seen "The Davinci Code" you'll know a bit about it) b/c it was built by William St. Clair (one of my H's ancestors) in 1446. It took ages to get there, but we finally did. Then we drove around Edinburgh and up through the Scottish Highlands (much of our drive was along the coast of the North Sea) along narrow, winding roads. It was stunning scenary--with mountains on all sides. We called ahead for a b&b, and arrived there at 9:20pm. It doesn't get dark in the highlands until after 11pm, and the sunrise is at 3:30am in the summer. Our B&B for those 2 nights was on a 2,000 acre farm with 400 sheep. We got a great deal--$80 for the first night, and $70 for the 2nd. Had a large room with attached bath. The room could actually have slept 4 people as there was a double bed and 2 twin beds. Our room in Sunderland was the same.

The next day we walked around and had tea and scones in a town called Thurso (where H's great-grandfather was born), and then made tracks for Wick to get in on the last tour of the day at the local whiskey distillary (Old Pulteney). However, once we arrived, we discovered that they are no longer open on Saturday. :cuss: So we went to the Wick Heritage Centre where we had an informative tour by two very lovely older ladies. One of them, once told about H being of the Sinclair Clan, made a call to the owner and archivist of the Sinclair Clan Study Centre Clan Sinclair Study Centre at Noss Head Ian Sinclair. We drove out there--it's located in a renovated lighthouse--and met him. Then we walked down to the ruins of the Sinclair Clan castle which is right on the coast. It's really beautiful. I have tons of pics that aren't developed yet, but will upload them once I get them.

Then we drove back to Thurso and stopped in a local pub where we got to talking with two guys. One of them was in full dress kilt, and was soon joined by others dressed the same. They belong to a bagpipe band and had just finished playing a concert. The non-kilted bloke got one of the younger guys to play us a few songs. It was really cool. They were wearing Mackenzie Clan tartans. That guy also bought us a round of drinks--very nice guy who downed Guinness like it was water. We didn't get back to the b&b until after 11pm, but it was still a bit light out..lol.

The next day we made our way through the Highlands again, but were determined to find a whiskey distillary that was open on Sunday. We drove all over the Speyside area where most of the Scottish distillaries are, and just missed the last tour at the Glenfiddich Distilllary by 15minutes. :cuss: So we gave up (as it was after 4:30) and headed back to Inverness and drove along the length of Loch Ness. It was raining, so we didn't spend too much time there, but we didn't catch a glimpse of Nessie. The area around Loch Ness and Speyside is very lush and green, and we were constantly gushing about its beauty. Around 8pm we started looking for a b&b, and found one with a vacancy sign that looked good. I knocked on the door and was greated by a very friendly woman who gave us a room (with shared bath) for $80. She had two other guests (a husband and wife from Dover) and the 6 of us (hostess's husband included) ended up gabbing for the next 3hrs over a cup of tea.

That b&b is on Loch Lochey, so we walked down to it in the morning after breakfast. Then we were on our way again, this time we found a distillary and got to tour it. It was the Ben Nevis distillary at the base of Ben Nevis--which I believe is Scotland's highest peak. We learned a lot about the whiskey making process, and got a free sample at the end of it. :D

Continued heading south, stopping for a roast lunch at a nice pub. H had roast chicken and I had roast beef. The meals were served with a huge bowl full of steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, potatoes), and then drove along the coast of Loch Lomond, and around Glasgow.

We crossed back into England and stopped in Kendal on the edge of the Lake District. We knocked on another b&b with a vacancy sign and stayed there for $100 per night. We got REALLY good fish and chips there, and ate it in our room while watching Wimbledon on tv.
 
The next day (Tuesday--our last day) we drove over 400 miles. We drove down western England between Liverpool and Manchester, down through Birmingham, Bristol, all the way to Cornwall. People said we would never make it there--it was impossible--but we did. We even got down to St. Austell which is pretty far down the Cornish coast and to the small little towns of Mevagissey and Gorran Haven where H stalked one of his favorite writers who lives there. He failed to find his house, but we had Cornish Pasties in a restaurant in Mevagissey. It's a really quaint port with unbelievably narrow streets. I promise you some of the two lane roads were as wide as one lane in the U.S. There were a few streets that only one car at a time could drive down. We had one incidence where a woman in a car charged up the street we were going down. H had to reverse the car so she could pass. I thought she was going to plow right into us.

H kept bemoaning the fact that we had so little time there. We drove for about 40min before we started looking for a b&b for our last night. We saw a sign for one and drove down the pretty country drive. It was a farmhouse set in a scenic spot. I knocked on the door, and an older lady answered. We took the room, even thought the house was incredibly musty smelling. The price was not that good, either ($100), but we didn't feel like driving any more that day..lol. At breakfast I could barely choke it down b/c the musty smell nearly made me throw up..lol. We got an early start b/c we had to drive 250 miles to the airport, and had to return the car by noon. We arrived an hour early, and had no trouble with the flight back except that they just cram you in like sardines.

I was quite miserable most of the flight b/c there just isn't any room. When you're trying to eat, you have to sit all hunched over your tray with no elbow room whatsoever. There were also a lot of kids on our flight--part of some group, and a couple of noisy toddlers now and again. But no screaming babies thank God. Still, I was in a foul mood, and drank a fair bit of booze to make me care less. :D Honestly, I don't know why you don't hear of more incidents involving airline passengers flipping out and getting violent, b/c I can assure you that I felt like murdering someone almost the entire time! :reddevil: It was all I could do to sit in my seat and not punch someone out. And they really pack the passengers in these days. Every flight we took was full or nearly full. No more days of half full flights where you can stretch out and chill.

Anyway, I'll stop my bitching now. I really should be grateful that I was able to take such a fantastic trip. H did all the driving, and drove 2,275 miles over 8 days!! :svengo: I cannot believe how much we saw.

And now the damage: I weighed in this morning for the first time since the morning we left. I was 217.5lbs. Today I was 222.5--so not so bad since the previous 5 days saw little exercise and tons of food...lol. I think I can take 5lbs off pretty quickly. I was really scared at first, though, b/c when I first stepped on the scale it said 230!! :svengo: But then it said error, and I got the 222.5 the next two times. Shew!

Well, now it's time to get to your diaries and find out what y'all have been up to the last few weeks. :)
 
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I'm so glad to see you back! Your trip sounds wonderful. Someday when I have enough money i will go there. 400 miles in 1 day! HOLY CRAP!!!!! EEEK. I don't know if i would have been able to try the black pudding! lol. That breakfast looks good though!!! I always get scared when I drive down narrow roads. MISSED YOU!
 
Very glad to have you back Kimberly. It sounds like you did have an amazing trip. Sorry to hear the scale is up a little bit, but, that is to be expected somewhat. It's not too much, and is completely reversible. Your hubby sounds like a saint for doing all that driving :)

So sorry I didn't include my last name on the postcard info. It wasn't intentional at all, just one of my little brain fart things I guess. I hope it still makes it to me, but I would think it would with my address and everything. I'm still waiting patiently for it to arrive :)

Happy 4th,
Sam
 
Great to see that you are back. You certainly squeezed a lot into that last week. We cannot believe that you slotted so much in (Rod wanted me to read out your double posting). I was beginning to wonder if you had extended the stay again.

The weight was bound to go up - but really - five pounds is nothing. I can imagine that you are relieved that it isnt 12.5 pounds. If you think about it - you have not been keeping to low sodium when you have been getting food that other people have prepared - so some of that is bound to be water retention too. I am sure that it will be gone with a few days of getting fully back on track with your food and exercise.
 
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