Adventures in Kiddie

Hi All,

I have spent the last couple days staying in Kidderminster, England with Averi and Tim. I flew into Manchester (due to my flight booking idiocy) and caught the train to Birmingham. It only took two hours and was moderately scenic so it wasn't that bad... When I arrived in Birmingham, I was in a gigantic and quite modern shopping center built recently with EU money. The building undulates on the outside and looks like it's been built with giant silver thumbtacks...sounds wierd but it kind of works. There's an open plan food area with noodle bars and homemade bread vendors and the like where we ate sushi off of a long conveyer belt. Afterwards, we hit up a local old-man bar for my first taste of scotch and soda on English soil.

It's been a very relaxing holiday. Slow mornings drinking giant mugs of coffee in bed and lots of pub crawling. We went to Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday and I got to check out the birthplace of ye olde William Shakespeare and the home of Anne Hathaway, his wife. It was a beautiful, sunny, day and we walked around town before having high tea at the Crabtree and Evelyn (who knew they did tea) tea house. Clotted cream is my new favorite food...who would have thought of spreading whipped cream on a scone in addition to butter and jam...mmmmm...I can feel my arteries clogging. They gave us our tea in blue and white china pots with extra large teacups and saucers. Good stuff.

Have been eating my face off. Averi is an amazing cook and we have been feasting. She has a coveted jar of real (non-palm oil based) peanut butter which has been much appreciated by me. She also turned me on to a kind of wholewheat sliced bread to buy here that can't be rolled into a big squishy ball. (Thank god-I've been trying every brand I can find without finding anything halfway decent.) We have barbecued, eaten an Italian Feast and multiple big breakfasts involving bacon. Yum. I have missed home cooked meals.

Today, we took the steam train to a picturesque town called Bewdley. It was hilly and had lots of old school Georgian architecture. It is on the banks of a fast-moving river that people surf on in some parts...hard to picture but true. The steam train is a full on chugga-chugga train with upholstered compartments and porters and restored stations and is completely run by volunteers. Very cool. We got fish and chips from the local chippy and visited Tim's sister who lives there.

Tomorrow, it's back to Dublin and a job interview on Tuesday. Wish me luck!