Back in Sunny England (well it was for 5 mins today...)

Arrived safely back in England on Thursday. Flight was okay and only 4 hours delayed (onya Qantas!) but at least I wasn't diverted to Frankfurt like another Syd-London flight a few days earlier (see a very disgruntled passenger's blog entry here).

I have spent the last few days catching up on sleep (oh so very jet lagged) and a spot of shopping and hanging out in Brighton with G. We also finally saw "The Dark Knight" on the world's smallest movie screen but at least managed to see it at the movies together before it finished and I managed to mostly stay awake.

Having been back only a few days, G informs me that he has a work training thing this week for a few days up in Burton-on-Trent (3.5 hrs drive north). So I asked if I could go too. G was worried I would be bored but with nearby Tutbury Castle and the 3 star rated St Mary's Church, as described in Simon Jenkins guide to England's thousand best churchs, I can easily find things to do. We are leaving tonight and will be back on Wednesday. We will be staying in Tutbury in a 500 year old pub called "Ye Olde Dog and Partridge". I am excited already!

Here's a pic of the pub:

I have been wanting to keep a log of things we have been up to. When Mr H stayed with us for a few days he came up with the idea to write a meme like summary. I normally struggle to write anything briefly and that turns me off. When it comes to detail I am all or nothing, I just can't help it. All takes too long and hence I never write so there is no record of what we are doing and no one hears about what we are up to (which is loads of things). We are very busy enjoying the great outdoors and taking advantage of the lovely summer weather. Mr H suggested 6 words for each answer. Though challenge for me! :) So here goes:-

Yesterday
We went to ...
Walked into Brighton to go shopping.

We are enjoying ...
Mr D staying with us; 2 nights

We didn't like/missed/was perturbed by ...
Still not finding the Chinese supermarket!

We listened to ...
Currently, Muse from D's ipod collection

Our flat is ...
Smelling of freshly ground coffee, mmmm!

We ate ... that was really yummy!
Salad wraps at the "Slug and Lettuce"

Okay so maybe 6 words misses quite a bit of detail :) but there you are...

Mr D is staying with us before he flies back to Australia tonight. Yesterday, while G was at work, we walked into Brighton via the fabulous little coffee shop we found with Mr H. D wanted to buy us a wedding present and was after a coffee grinder. I knew the coffee shop sold beans (many many beans) and all kinds of espresso machines and coffee makers. Unfortunately however, not the kind of coffee grinder D had in mind. More shopping needed.

On our walk we came across "Argos" which is a catalogue shop. You shop by reading one of the many catalogues attached to little stations. You make your selection, enter the catalogue number into a machine at your station and it tells you the price and availability, then you order it and someone goes and gets it for you from out the back I guess -or may be delivers at a later date. They sell everything!! But not a coffee grinder...

We walked all the way into Debenhams (DJ equivalent) in the Shopping centre of Brighton, and there we found the good coffee grinder. Beans were purchased on the return trip past the coffee shop and freshly ground coffee was enjoyed by all (but me, although I loved the smell). Both on the walk into and back from Brighton we looked for the Chinese supermarket that G and I have both seen on previous trips into Brighton. Never found it! I know it is on that street. Bah. Frustrating! We need Soy! The tiny bottle from our local supermarket is not enough!

We went out for dinner and found an Indian Restaurant that served quite a decent Butter Chicken (it was actually orange this time as apposed to yellow at a previous venue). Although Indian food here is so very oily. After dinner drinks was at the "Ginger Pig" -quite a nice pub if a bit fancy and trendy rather than old and typically English.