The Goodenough Blog

Oh the holy terror that is the giggle loop.  I’ll let Jeffrey explain. . .

So this evening we went to a choir performance by one of our new housemates.  Jessie was singing the Passion according to the gospel of Mark at her church, St. Luke’s Anglican church.  I have not been in a traditional church in sometime and it was both terrifying and exciting at the same time.  The choir was good but very solemn.  And then “Jesus” got up to sing. . . and did he ever.  He trilled his “R’s” and shook when he sang.  Then the other guy got up for his solo and did the same, very committed to the part.  And then came the giggles.  I squeezed Eric’s hand when “Jesus”  tried to jump an octave and didn’t quite make it.  I started to snicker, then I felt Eric shaking with laughter.  I could barely control myself.  I was shaking and holding my hands over my face so that hopefully no one could tell I was crying from laughter.  I finally stopped only to start back up again as I could feel Eric still shaking from laughter.  He finally ignored me and started reading some random flyer that he found so that he could concentrate on something else.  It took everything in my body to keep from bursting out in laughter, oh man that sucked and was so much fun at the same time.  I love it!

We made it!  But just barely. . . .

We packed and brought with us 4 suitcases of 70lbs each because that’s what the airline said we could bring.  We brought our computer monitors, almost ever piece of clothing I own, and 10 pairs of shoes.  And of course my sizable MAC collection.  I thought it was great how much stuff I was able to bring, until I met up with the English train/subway system.  People in Europe don’t pack giant 30″ bags, they pack these minuscule little roller bags that I swear can’t hold more that a pair of socks and a toothbrush.  And so because of our enormous bags not only are we instantly labeled “Americans” but we are also forced to navigate the underground with no elevators.

So at the beginning of our trip we decided to put 2 of the 4 bags into a storage facility at the train station so that we only had to lug around 2 huge bags while we toured the countryside.  It was still miserable with our huge bags, every time the train approached I got a little pit in my stomach as I tried to figure out where the luggage rack was and how not to block all the travelers looking pissed and in a hurry.  Every hotel room we stayed in was on the second or third floor and none had elevators, so again we lugged our bags up the stairs.  So yesterday we went to get the other bags out of storage and £96 later we were headed to the Tube and back to our hotel.  The Tube is soooo anti-luggage and anti-handicap for that matter there are absolutely NO elevators.  So as we dragged them down the stairs at one station, we had to lug them up 4 flights of stairs at the next stop.  I am never-ever doing that again.  Never.  Next time we are going to shell out the £50 and get a taxi.

Ugh, but needless to say us and all 4 of our bags arrived in Brighton tonight to a mad house and more stairs.  The couple who are renting out their house to us were here packing up their house to leave in the morning and their 3 kids were running around plus the other 2 women we will be living with for the next several months.  Our rooms are on the 4th? floor and so we carried our bags up yet another 3 flights of stairs.  We have 2 attached rooms with 2 beds, the one room is huge and perfect for our workspace.  Can’t wait to get settled in.

So we are back in London today after a glorious 2 days in the countryside.  Ugh.  We have seriously got to get out of the city with our giant luggage.  Navigating the Tube with a huge bag is no fun.  And the last 2 days in London’s financial district has been quite chaotic.  The G20 summit summoned world leaders from many countries and demonstrations and riots for days.  People broke into the Royal Bank of Scotland and police had to try to corral 4000 people in the streets.  So as we are hearing about all this I realize that the hotel we booked is right in the heart of the chaos.  We are staying right where the riots happened.  Today though it is business as usual.  Thank God.  We have seen a few signs of the demonstrations but mostly people are back at work, la dee dah.

So last night I stayed awake sick in the bathroom so we were more than happy to check into the hotel today and sleep.  I have no pictures because we didn’t do anything but get on a train, another train and crash on our bed.  Maybe tomorrow.  Tomorrow we go to Brighton, our new home until August.  We are so excited to get there and get settled, we are weary of traveling and ready to get back to work.  And so I am off to sleep, hopefully I sleep through the night tonight.

When I met Eric in 1997/1998 I thought he was so mysterious, so smart and underneath that hard exterior he had the most tender heart of any boy I had ever met.  I was immediately in love and thought we would go on dating and being in love forever.  But then my wonderful Eric upped the stakes and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him and while I was so young and naive about marriage I gladly accepted.   I had this unexplainable knowledge that he was going to do amazing things and I wanted to be part of the journey.  Now, 9 years after we said “I Do” we find ourselves frozen on a canal in rural England having the time of our lives.  I think this is what I meant by being part of the journey, although I never quite pictured a life in the UK.

Now for the surprise!  Eric has had a long fascination with canals and locks since I can remember.  So for our 9 year anniversary I surprised him with a 4 hour tour of Bath by boat.  He was so excited and couldn’t believe that I had kept it a secret for nearly a month.  As we approached I soon realized that this was not the private tour I had imagined, this is a choose your own adventure, drive your own boat, holy crap what did I get us into, trip.  Surprise!

We had so much fun on the canal, it’s like being in an RV except you are on the water.  There are other boats parked along the water which people live on since there are kitchens and bathrooms and beds.  We decided that we might have to spend a weekend on one sometime, you can cruise into a city, park and have a pint at the local pub and then climb back on and drift off again.  We were on our own into the wilderness with only a ten minute tutorial on how to drive these things and the rules of the canal.  We were pioneers off to explore the new world together.

I have to say this is the most fun we have ever had on our anniversary.  We had an amazing time on the canal, we found this incredible tea room in a basement and I had the most delicious Chai.  We walked over to the Royal Crescent and enjoyed the sunshine and then went out for a less than amazing dinner.  I won’t go into specifics about the ending of my dinner, but lets just say I got no sleep.  Even still I am happy to say that the adventure continues and that we have had an incredible 9 years and I can’t wait to see what we do in another 9.  I love you Snarky, thanks for the time of my life.

Wow what a day.  We left Liverpool today early to get on not one, but 4 trains!  L-o-o-o-o-o-n-g day.  We finally arrived in Bath today and what an incredible city.  We are staying at the Tolley Cottage which is just 10 min walk from the city center.  The cottage is right on the Avon canal and from our room we have a view of the city and the canal and so we watched the sunset from our room while we rested from our long journey.

We decided to venture out and see the city and stopped into Sally Lunn’s Tea House.  This house is the oldest house in Bath, built in 1482 the house is famous for Sally Lunn who came to the house in the 1600’s and started baking buns that became famous and they still serve them today.  It is so fun, like tea in Jane Austen’s living room.  We had tea and buns and then wandered over to Bath Abbey.    For dinner we decided to go to Jamie Oliver’s Restaurant here in town.  It is rustic Italian and the food was excellent.  We had these green olives that were incredible and they were playing Il Postino, one of my favorite films, on the wall with English subtitles.  Actually it was so cool because Il Postino is about the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda during his political asylum in Italy, the reason this is cool is because Neruda is one of my favorite poets.  The other reason it was cool to see it today is that we had a Neruda poem on the head table at our wedding exactly 9 years ago today.

I can’t wait to surprise Eric with our Anniversary present tomorrow!

Ack so just as Eric lines up the camera for a breathtaking nighttime view of Albert Dock in Liverpool, with the lights on the water and the sky still slightly lit with purple and grey clouds. . . . the battery dies.  Blast!  We have pictures of our day in Liverpool but alas they will not be online until we are reunited with our luggage that we left in London.

In the meantime, I can tell you my impressions of Liverpool.  Well. . . not Liverpool exactly but Albert Dock.  The dock is a recently refurbished area of the city that has undergone a major transformation.  It is lined with a few shops, cafes and restaurants.  There is also a TATE art gallery where we saw an exhibit on Art in the 20th century.  I was very excited to see the Jackson Pollocks but everything else was. . . umm. . . .strange and unimpressive.  But maybe I don’t get art.  This area of Liverpool is great if you just have an afternoon to spend down here.  Which is exactly what we had.  We are leaving in the morning for Bath, but thank GOD for the Holiday Inn which is right on the docks.  After the last hotel this is a very welcome change, we have Wifi in our room, a decent bed and elevators.  Yes!  Elevators are good.

Yummm I love ale’s especially local ones, you can taste the region and they are made in small batches so that they are very flavorful etc.  I am writing this from a cute little cafe in Lake Windermere in Cumbria.  This apparently is the only spot in town where I can get online which is why there was no post from yesterday.  I am about to enjoy a steak and Guiness pie and if that wasn’t enough alcohol, I am drinking my Black Sheep Ale as well.  I like drinking at lunch, my afternoons are much more relaxed and I don’t have to wake up with a hangover, not that I drink that much anyway.

Today we went for a walk along the lake, it was so beauiful.  Just so different from what we are used to.  There are these amazing stone walls everywhere that are hand built and have lovely moss growing on them which makes the stones look green.  We found a little waterfall and had a great time wandering around in the country.  I definitely want to come back here when its warm and when we have a car so that we can cruise around to all the little towns around this area.  Or maybe to live for a while, who knows.

Today we landed in Windermere, or Boness-on-Windermere which is the little town on Lake Windermere. This is a tiny little town about the size of Carpinteria maybe that has adorable little shops and restaurants and B&B’s everywhere.  This is where the English come on holiday and so everything is kinda touristy but still has a lot of charm.  This is where Eric lived for a few months in the summer of 1996 while working at the Belsfield Hotel by the lake.  In the scheme of things here in Boness, it is by far the biggest and most domineering hotel in this area.  The staffs quarters where Eric lived were so drab and depressing and yet he has such great memories of this place.

It was sooooo much fun to come here since I have heard the stories for years about his time here with Chris.  In fact I think that is part of the reason I fell in love with him is because he was so brave to come live here all alone at 19 and his enthusiasm for traveling and adventure.  I saw the place pub where they used to hang out with the other staff from the hotel.  I saw the hills where they used to go hiking and get into trouble.  I saw where the stoddy shop used to be, a sandwich that I have heard tales about for probably 10 years.  It was so much fun to be here with him and watch him relive his time here.  He grew up here, meaning that he became who he is today.  He found a love for the british culture, a love for travel and a deep empathy for others and people away from home.  I have often said that I wouldn’t have married him if he never came to Europe, he was a completely different person before he came here (so he says).  I don’t know if that’s true or not but I can say that I love him more for showing me this place that is so special to him.

Yes, I, Amber Nicole Goodenough have mastered the English washer/dryer thingy.  I have spent the last 2 days trying to do a wash and dry load in the same unit only to have my clothes take 4 hours to finish a cycle and then they are still so damp that I would need 2 days for them to dry on a clothesline.  Ugh!  But today it worked!  My clothes were completely dry when I took them out, yes!

So as you may have guessed I did laundry today.  We decided to take it easy today and just hang out and watch a movie.  We did some laundry and got some yummy Iranian food.  The end.

Not much to say today.

Edinburgh = cold and bad internet with cool buildings and churches.