We choose to go to the moon...

I'm home from my spectacular, spectacular trip to England & Wales with kiffle. It was So. Much. Fun. So much fun!

We arrived on Thursday morning and met up at Gatwick. After an hour on the customs line, E was waiting with mini-muffins and we were off to pick up our rental car and drive the two hours to Stratford. Okay, driving on the other side of the road from the other side of the car? NOT EASY. That first day I had a terrible tendency to drift to the left and, wow, the roundabouts intimidated me. By the end of the trip? Saturn: BRITISH ROAD MASTER. Kiffle will back me up. I drove in the rain and the fog and in populated areas and not only did everyone come through unscathed but the car did as well. \o/

Back at it. We arrived at The Stratford Hotel around 2pm after a quick stop at a Welcome Break for lunch and some cautious driving. After a nap, we went out for a quick, but yummy dinner, and then headed over to the theater for night one of Hamlet. More on Hamlet shortly.

On Friday morning we headed out around 10am for Cardiff with noble plans of arriving shortly after noon. I'm going to blame the roundabout signs for this but, partway into the drive, we ended up driving about 25 miles in the wrong direction. Ooops! We did, however, get to stop at the Chateau Impney Hotel for directions. Forget the stunning chateau, there were goats.

We made it to Cardiff shortly after 1pm and, by the grace of travel luck, parked around the corner from the Hub Millennium Center. Cardiff! The Hub!! We were the biggest dorks with our photos and I don't care because it was so much fun to visit Cardiff Bay! We have all sorts of photos of the bay and the Millennium Center and the Hub and the Dr. Who exhibition. David Tennant's tiny suit! Daleks! AN OOD (born with it's brain in its hand)!!

Because it couldn't be easy, we had a bit of a downpour part of the drive home from Cardiff but, as noted above, there were no casualties. We were back in Stratford by 6pm or so, napped again, and had a delicious dinner at The Oppo. The photo of the restaurant doesn't do it justice. YUM. After drinks at the hotel bar, it was off to bed for our final day.

Saturday! Saturday was FANTASTIC. We started the morning walking around town because we hadn't had a chance while shops were open. By 12:15pm, we were at Warwick Castle. My first castle!! There were dungeons and towers and everything you'd expect of a castle built hundreds and hundreds of years ago and continually updated through the 1800's. I could totally live like that.

Back to the hotel by 3:30pm for, yes, another nap. :) Early dinner at The White Swan (greasy fish & chips) and then off to night two of Hamlet.

Oh, my god, this show! It was so good. I expected it to be great but it was better than great. Patrick Stewart is a master and David Tennant played the part like he was born for it. He brought a ton to the dramatic moments but it was Hamlet's frenetic madness where Tennant really stood out. His pacing was perfect and he brought so much humor to the role.

It's a small theater that was made all the better by our kick ass seats. (Thanks E!!) The first night, we were in the 5th row facing the front of the stage. The 2nd night, we were in front row of the next section back. From those fifth row seats the actors were right there.

Um, also? I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how hot David Tennant is. Holy shit. There's this one scene where he's barefoot wearing a red t-shirt & jeans and every now and then he'd lift his arms up showing a stripe of belly and just, shit, my own belly did flips. He was cute and handsome and charming and I adore him more than ever.

On Saturday night, since we'd already seen the show, we snuck out of our aisle seats at the start of the final duel to head for the stage door. We'd popped by Thursday night but Tennant was already gone and we wanted a chance for autographs and pictures. Score!


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kiffle has all of our trip photos on her camera including the photos (and video!) of David Tennant but, when they're posted, you'll see that he was right. there. He's so skinny! And cute! And E has photos of his freckles! It was the perfect end to our fantastic trip.

This morning we were up at 6am for the two hour drive back to Gatwick and now, sadly, we're home. All good things...

What's next!?!

PS to Kiffle: Thank you for a) enabling and b) being a fantastic traveling partner/navigator. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff!

Lazy weekend! I was sad to see it end! I woke up Saturday with a dutifully earned hangover and lazed about for most of the day. My evening included "A History of Violence" which remains one of my favorite movies. Sunday was equally lazy. I slept until after 10am, canceled dinner plans, and then napped from 2- 4:30pm. My big ambition was making it out for a run.

So, running...my favorite part is when I pass by other runners and we do that little hand wave, head title acknowledgment. Runner solidarity! I love it! I'm averaging about 10 minute miles on the road and 9.5 minute miles on the treadmill. I'm still at 3.5 miles/run and that's about where I plan to stay for the foreseeable future. It's long/far enough to be a substantial workout but not so far that I need to carve out an unreasonable amount of time to fit it in. What I really do need to do is get weight training back on my schedule.

I'm not through talking about RENT. Actually, I'm pretty surprised at the intensity of my reaction to the show's closing. Here are two more videos:

( minni0612 pointed me this video of the final curtain call. Give it to about one minute in and then cast members, old and new, come out for one last emotional performance of Seasons of Love )

( And timberho directed me to this video of RENT fans performing La Vie Boheme at the real Life Cafe the night before the show closed )

I'm sure everyone has seen the J2 pictures from the Red Bull Soap Box Derby but here they are, in my journal, too, so I can come back to see them again and again and again. Quite honestly, I rarely find Jared good looking but he totally does it for me in these pictures. I think it's the sunglasses.

Many thanks to lilysaid, carta, and beatpropx for putting a smile on my face today. The power of memes!

It's two days until my England/Wales extravaganza with kiffle! I'm so ready!! Now it's just a matter of packing. (Kiffle - I'm bringing a casual dress for one night of the show and I plan to wear pants and a top the other. I'll be very casual when we go to Wales. And please tell me you'll want to nap when we get to Stratford!)

This post is getting longer than intended but I have to rec a fic I read last night: Kissing Lessons by dotfic It's a Supernatural/Some Kind of Wonderful crossover and it's Watts/Dean and it's spot on perfect. I'm flailing over this fic.

So, my nephew has this tape that holds the NAM in place. You can see it in this picture. Anyway, the hospital doesn't provide the tape in a ready to use form. My sister and brother in law have to create the tape strips with steri-strips and rubber bands and it's a long, involved process. They taught me how to make the tapes when I was visiting over Labor Day weekend so, when I got back to MI, I called the hospital and had them send me materials for 100 of these strips. I spent a good part of last week making them and the finished product arrived at my sister's house today. Surprise! \o/