The big chill has arrived in London and the snow has been flying! Josh and I have been mostly enjoying the snow from the comfort and warmth of our flat...but we have managed to venture out a few times.
My brother Sam's birthday is on the 13th, so we had planned on going up to Chippenham to visit and take in a football match. The first indication that the weekend was going to be anything but normal was my SIL Amanda's facebook post about have "no hot water or heat"...uh oh! The second indication was a phone call from Amanda about 10 minutes before Josh and I had to leave to catch our train. In this call we found out that Sam had been bumped up to a sort of "emergency" status, which meant he had to be at Mildenhall and ready to fly within one hour of getting the word to go. The word was, that he should expect this call around 6:30 am the next day...which put a total crimp in our "Sam's Birthday Weekend" plans, which included drinking, a football match, cheesecake and sushi! It was decided that I would go up to Chippenham to be with Amanda and Josh stayed back in London since we didn't think Sam would be around. I finally arrived at the cottage pretty late, but we stayed up to quickly celebrate Sam's birthday. We Facetimed mom and dad while Sam unwrapped his presents (he got some awesome Norwich football team swag from Amanda) and then sang Sam "Happy Birthday" which quickly evolved to eating Sam's birthday cheesecake (yum!).
Happy Birthday Cheesecake made by Amanda on the left and Happy Birthday Apple Pie made by Rachel
on the right!
The following morning I woke up expecting to see Sam gone and Amanda to be huddled up with Hercules and crying (this would have been Sam's first deployment). Instead, Sam is in the kitchen trying to fix the boiler (there still wasn't any heat or hot water)! After some discussion, Amanda and I decided to try to find a way to sell the football tickets for that day (180 pounds worth!)...Sam just couldn't risk being in Norwich if he got the call from base. The night before, Amanda had posted the football tickets on her facebook page, to see if anyone local was interested. At about 10:30 in the morning, Sam got a call from one of his superiors asking about the tickets. Turns out, the wife of one of the superiors saw Amanda's post and told her husband about how Sam was going to miss his birthday football game. Sam's superior gave him permission to go to the game and changed his status to something like "not urgent". Yay! I quickly called Josh and told him to get his butt up to Chippenham...and quickly...so we could make the game.
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| Norwich Vs. Newcastle |
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| I think the Newcastle uniforms make them look like they all work at Foot Locker! |
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| Amanda and I trying to stay warm at the game! |
The football match was a bit of a bummer...not a lot of action. Final score was 0 to 0...so not very exciting! We did enjoy hearing the fans chant, Newcastle seems to have the better ones in my opinion. I was disappointed in the stadium at Norwich. For what we paid for the tickets (equivalent to about $68.00 each) the stadium was really run down and while we had a good view of the field, we also had a good view of the roof that slanted down and blocked out the rest of the stadium...sort of felt a little like a coffin. I am hopeful that the next time we go to a game, it will be warmer and at a better stadium!
After the game we all walked to a cute little Italian restaurant that Amanda had booked for us. We had some great food and conversation and then finally headed back to the cottage in Chippenham. It was so cold in the house when we arrived! I could see my breath! Luckily, Sam got the fire going and we sat in the living room for a while before heading off to bed.
The next morning was Sam's birthday. He spent the morning watching the boiler so we could all have hot showers before church. After church we did a little shopping and then headed back to Samanda's to make Sam's birthday lunch and dessert. Amanda fried up some tempura shrimp and veggies while I made a delicious apple pie and gobs of sushi!
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| The delicious sushi and sides. |
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Happy Birthday Sam!
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Josh and I left later that day to return to London. We had a great weekend celebrating Sam's birthday! I'm glad Sam actually got to celebrate it with us too!
The cold from over Sam's birthday weekend stuck around and then we got reports of snow to come! I love snow, it is so magical! It started snowing in London on Friday and then seemed to stick around all weekend. On Sunday it snowed all day so Josh and I took the opportunity to walk around London and enjoy the weather.
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| Josh and I along the Thames |
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| Little tiny snowman :) |
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| Snowing in London |
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| Me in St. James Park |
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| Josh near Parliament |
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| Snowy Big Ben. |
Other than our 3 hour walk in the snow, Josh and I had a pretty lazy weekend, just enjoying the warmth of our little flat. I enjoy the snow, but now I'm ready for warmer weather, please and thank you!
Rachel x
