A Lazy Weekend

The weekend just gone was a very lazy affair.   After the past two weekends involving some very early starts waking up at 8am on Saturday morning felt quite pleasant.

The day of Bedgebury was an early start and the Sunday after I got up to walk the dog to Seaford to support everyone taking part in Seaford Half Marathon.

The previous weekend was far from relaxing.   On Saturday we were all up early - Shaun to walk the dog before he left for work and Dani and I were off to spend the day in Canterbury looking round Christ Church University.  Whilst Dani has already made her mind up that she wants to do her Psychology degree at University of Brighton we have already visited Reading and Royal Holloway but we needed one more to give her an idea of different accommodation should she decide to study away from home.  Whilst Canterbury isn't overly difficult to get to by road the University made it quite clear that we should not take the car, or if we did to use the Park & Ride facility.   I hate driving and will avoid it at all costs.   Because of this we had to catch the 7am train from Newhaven!  Changing at Lewes and then again at Ashford International meant a train journey of 3 hours.   We had no idea which way to go when we came out of the station, there were no signposts so we decided to head to the city centre and go from there.   Once we'd walked through the centre we found some student helpers who were dressed in eye catching red t-shirts and were very helpful in getting us to the right place.

First on our agenda was to visit the Psychology Department to get some advice on the course and to have a walk round the campus.    After some lunch in the campus cafe we headed back into town to find the University library to attend a talk on accommodation.  Canterbury is a totally self catered affair, unlike Reading and Holloway which also have catered.    The accommodation is also dotted around the City but nothing is too far from campus.   We both liked the rooms we visited and surprisingly, after Dani had said totally outright she was studying from home she was now beginning to think with an open mind and quite liked the size of the rooms and how they were set out, and was planning how she would cope on her own.

After we'd seen all we could take in we walked back through the City Centre and did a bit of shopping, sussing out places she might be able to get part time work and eating places for the days when she couldn't be bothered to make toast or pot noodle.   We both absolutely loved Canterbury and it will be going down on her list as a possible if she decides not to go to Brighton.

The train journey home was easy too - all the changes in reverse but this time it only took 2.5 hours!

Thankfully my parents had come down to dog sit and they ordered a takeaway for tea which arrived in good time after Shaun had got back from work.

Sunday was another early morning - Shaun was taking part in the London to Brighton Bike Ride.  I hadn't quite envisaged being woken up at 2.30 on Sunday morning by a phone call about changing the van they were using for transportation; and at 4 when he got up to get ready to go; and at 5 when he was picked up by our friend Lucy who was taking the "team" to Clapham Common.  I went back to bed and slept til 7!  I had planned to take the dog out for a long walk over the hills as I didn't know what time I would be back from Brighton but it started to rain and Archie doesn't "do" walking in the rain!   I had planned to get the bus in to Brighton at about 12 in the hope that Shaun wouldn't complete the course in less than 5 hours.   It took a while to walk down to the finish and in the process of moving around we completely missed him crossing the line at just before 1pm.   It had taken him 5 hours and a bit.  I'm so proud of him, after all he's been through with the leg over the last few years it's good to see him enjoying cycling.  The rest of the team came over the line 30 minutes later.  Some other friends and my brother were also taking part and came through just before 3pm!   They all had a brilliant day and can't wait to do it again.

Friday just gone turned out to be quite stressful.  We received an email on Thursday evening from Alpha Rooms to say that our BA return flight from Tunisia had been cancelled.  On Friday Shaun spent the whole day on the phone re-arranging our return.  Unfortunately we have to come back 2 days early.  We've lost £180 worth of accommodation plus a night's stay at the Travelodge which we had to rebook. On the upside I'm not changing my holiday from work so will have a few days at home after to spend with Dani before she flies off to Bulgaria for her holiday.  Thankfully it's all sorted now but for one minute it looked like we may lose the whole holiday.

What's next?  Next weekend is a lazy one too, apart from a bit of running and dog walking, and it's our 24th wedding anniversary.   The following weekend (6th & 7th) is the South Coast Triathlon and South Coast Run which I'm running 10k and also meeting up with some twitter friends.