northern exposure

sorry for my delayed re-cap of the trip north. we left friday morning for southport and stayed with old friends of R's, E & J and they're newly-acquired english staffordshire bull terrier 'bully'. we went to the local (pub), proceeded to get drunk, ate pizza, and played guitar hero III all night. from what i remember, it was a great time! i was drunk enough to mingle with the puppy, which shows the level of inebriation.

we went to liverpool saturday afternoon, and had dinner on lark lane in an italian restaurant with R's mom, grandad, uncle, aunt, sister, cousin and boyfriend of his cousin. we stayed in the innkeeper's lodge in aigburth--on the south side of liverpool--near R's grandad's house. we probably won't stay there again--after the burglar alarm for the front door went off sometime around 4.30 a.m. and stayed on for a good hour. was odd, as there was no one to call to come and turn it off! didn't make us feel particularly safe. we left liverpool for bradford sunday around noon, and gave R's mom and sister a lift across the pennines on the M62--britian's 'highest point of any motorway.' it didn't seem nearly as high as driving across pennsylvania, but the view was nice. sorry no pics--i was driving, after all...

we went to dinner at the ring 'o bells with R's friends J and A sunday night--was honestly the best british food i've ever had. i think, if it was socially acceptable, i would have licked my plate clean. but i didn't--instead i tried my hardest to eat my sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and bailey's ice cream... so delicious.

we stayed at R's dad's house in bradford, and had a relaxed day monday--only leaving to visit his mom for tea and heading to dinner with R's family at nawaab, an indian restaurant which is commonly touted as britian's finest curry house. we weren't disappointed. it's been reported that princess di once called the nawaab and had them deliver curry to her in london--a good 4 hour drive. it sounded like an urban legend until i actually ate the food. unbelievably delicious.

we headed to the druids after for a pint of caffrey's with R's dad. I got some pics of the landlord Mick, and one of R's pop with a couple other regulars.

we left tuesday after visiting with R's grandma and her partner. we headed back to london (where we saw this fabulous mcvitites semi!), and prematurely thought the trip was flawless--until the M25/ A3 roundabout. i just couldn't get in the lane i needed to be in, so we wound up back on the M25--heading the same direction! we then thought we'd easily fix the problem by getting off at the next exit, only we managed to stay in the roundabout just too long, and again wound up heading the same direction on the m25 we'd just thought we'd exited--was like something you'd see in National Lampoon's Euro Vacation. but somehow, we got the rental car back just in time.

R had his interview in London yesterday, and today we're just trying to recover from our colds. we're heading up to london in a bit to see cousins L & J. unfortunately, i don't think we'll manage to stay long with our sniffles--but since we're not going anywhere for xmas, i'm sure we'll see them again for a holiday gathering.