Fighting Dragons With You: April 2012

well well well, if it isn't crash bandicoot.

I have no excuse for letting time get out of control and not blogging more. After all, I am mostly a part-time worker, but who wants to sit around and blog on a day off? I'd much rather waste my time on facebook and spend countless hours on pinterest. Ha! True story, mostly. I really need to allocate more time to blogging, as it is mostly like an online journal that's always fun to look back on. I always wait so long to the point that I have to start writing lists of all the things I want to blog about! It's like an essay you have too many ideas for and you're dreading sitting down to write it out perfectly. So many of my ideas aren't even the usual catching-everyone-up on the fun things we've done since my last post, which I'm sure people already know about thanks to facebook! I'll quit with the rambling and try my best not to make this post too long. So here goes....

Since my last update, we've had Amand's super quick weekend visit, a just-as-quick trip to France with the parents, mine and Cat's 68 mile charity bike ride, we've booked a short trip to Venice for the end of May (so soon now!) and Peter and I celebrated our one year anniversary! Aside from those events, I've been wanting to write about my move to England; the positives and negatives that I've faced these past 9 months.

First we had Amand's visit. His work sent him to Galway, Ireland, for a few weeks and he planned a quick weekend trip to come see us. Of course the weather had been getting really nice--sunny and warm, but when he came, it turned to the usual, if not worse, English weather we all know and don't love. (Can you tell I am bitter?!) Peter and I drove up to London to fetch Amand and....funnily enough, we saw Dave as they exited their terminal!! We were supposed to meet Dave the weekend before, but apparently he couldn't change his flights and as I found out that day, they kept him an extra week! It was great to see him and he was finally able to meet Peter! After leaving the airport, we drove into central London (well, we parked in the 02 stadium) and tubed into central London for an entire day of sightseeing. I honestly think I could sightsee London like a tourist all day, every day. I love it! We showed him everything--I won't list it all because if you can think it, we probably saw it. The weather cleared up and we were left with a gorgeous view of Big Ben and House of Parliament at sunset. We also went into a wonderful little gem of a restaurant in Covent Garden for lunch, which had the most incredible meals on the menu. If you know me, then you know I can get really grouchy when I'm hungry, and we waited a little too long to start looking for lunch, but it was all worth it in the end when we found this place (after already leaving one place that only served pies...)!

Alrighty, next on the list was our quick day trip to France. Peter's parents will find any excuse to book a Eurotunnel ticket, even if it's because they're running low on wine and want to venture over to France for the day for more. This was the first time that Cat didn't come with us, so although she was missed, we took full advantage of the extra room in the car and thoroughly enjoyed our day, it was like a double date with the in-laws! It was so special! We did the usual stop for gas and a quick breakfast, coffee and croissant usually, and then drove straight to Vimy Ridge. Peter kept going on and on about wanting to show me the trenches and how much I'd love them, but to be honest, I typically don't have much interest in war or history, so I was a little skeptical but didn't want to shoot him down (ha, no pun intended!). When we got there, we took a little tour of the underground tunnel, then the trenches, and I actually loved it probably the most! That might be my problem with war and history...the fact that you usually only hear about it and I'm more of a tactical-visual learner, so being there in person was really amazing. The trenches between Germany and Canada/Europe were literally only about 25 yards away from each other- absolutely crazy! After our educational tour, we drove into a sweet little town (I can't remember what it's called..) for lunch and a gorgeous little walk. It is so nice that we're so close to France that we can just nip in a quick day trip and still make it home at the end of the day. On this same trip, Peter and I stocked up on a case of wine (6 bottles which usually last us a while), and once we were back at his parents, they ordered us an Indian takeaway! They sure do take excellent care of us. I am so lucky and so appreciative. My time here wouldn't be the same without them!

Next on the list of events is mine and Cat's 68 mile Big Bike Ride! Cat recently got into taking spin class at her gym and was inspired enough to get a new bike! I mentioned that if she got one soon enough, we could sign up for the 68 mile ride together! She was certainly up for it, so we did! We both managed to do really well, considering we've never done one before and both really seemed to enjoy it! It was the perfect weather, with gorgeous scenery of South East Kent's countryside in spring, and we finished in 7 hours! We made a few friends along the way who we had a very similar pace to, and that helped incredibly. It's definitely inspired me to get out on my bike more!

Next is our one year anniversary! I can't believe how quickly that year went! So much has happened in the past year! As a little present to ourselves, and to celebrate getting out of Peter's overdraft, we looked into flights to Venice, and because Easyjet was having a 30% off deal for Leap Year, we booked our flights that day for May 20-23 (full days on the 20th and 23)! YAY! Believe it or not, it's going to be our first flight together!! We can't wait. It's been on our minds and topics of many conversations since the day we booked it. We also managed to find this adorable little apartment where we'll be staying: click here to view!

So on the day of our anniversary, peter and I took the day off. It ended up raining, so we slept in and headed into town for a little coffee date. I took my laptop with us, so we decided to look through our wedding pictures :-) We hadn't really looked through them together since the wedding! For presents, all I wanted was a nice dinner that night; whether we went out, or cooked something nice together, didn't matter. Eventually, we decided on The Ancient Raj (previously mentioned as the best indian in Canterbury!). For Peter's present, since we're still kind of on a tight budget, I let him blow up one of his favorite pictures from Bruges and buy a new frame for it. It's now a lovely addition displayed in our hallway :-) Our dinner was booked for 7pm, and when we got there, the waiter sat us down at our table which had two "Happy Anniversary" balloons on it!! I forgot to mention, the night before our anniversary, Peter's parents gave us a card with a £40 voucher to spend at The Ancient Raj!! So our delicious meal was on them!! :-) We had enough to get dessert, and after, the owner came out to congratulate us and gave us a free liqueur! During our dinner we reflected on everything we've gone through in the past year. All the changes we've made, ways we've grown, and discussed our future goals. It was the perfect excuse to reflect and plan out our new goals. All I can say, is that I am so happy to have found him. We are so connected in every way. I can't wait for us to go through life together!