Preston Christmas trip

On Saturday I went up to Preston for the night to meet up with my friends from the Studio. After getting the train up, I went for a meal at the Continental pub with a large group from dancing. The meal was very nice and it was great catching up with people I haven't spoken to for nearly a year.

Tricia and Katherine, my amazing (and crazy) friends. 

Getting flowers.

I stayed overnight with Katherine and Philip, so after the meal we went back and opened a bottle of prosecco and chatted. Katherine hadn't had that much to drink. She just a bit crazy but I love her for it!

Wrapped up.

Nearly fell down the stairs when I opened the bathroom door to see this!

 On Sunday morning, after a lie in, we went to explore the Preston Christmas markets. They were ... well it's Preston so a bit disappointing. There were a few stalls, an iceskating rink, and food places. And being Preston, it was of course raining.

Skating rink 

Little ones got skating penguins to help them - so cute. 

Wet and a bit empty.

Beer hall.

 Some of the stalls had some nice things. I only brought some cheese (I do miss good sharp English cheese).

Gel based plants 

Super giant sausage roll!

Cookie monster cupcakes!

Philip had to go back tot he house to find my ring, which I had missed placed. Thankfully he found it (such a sweetie for going back and looking!).
Due to the rain we ended up eating in a cafe before Katherine dropped me off at the train station. On the train, I got a table seat but then a drunk guy, clutching his can of gin & tonic, sat opposite and proceeded to snore loudly! Thankfully he only stayed on the train for 2 stops!  Now time for a lamb roast for dinner. I love being home!

Katherine's wedding

The main reason for coming home this February was to go to Katherine and Philips wedding which was this weekend at the Farrington Lodge in Leyland, near Preston. We traveled up on Friday afternoon and were going to go to Coco's in Preston for dinner but the GPS was having a few issues and we had a hard enough time finding the hotel. Once we were there, we decided it was safer not to leave!
The wedding was lovely. Katherine looked amazing and so happy. And we were really lucky with the weather. It was cold (we were freezing standing outside waiting for the photos) but at least it didn't rain!

Officially married

With the parents

Me and Katherine

The dinner was very nice. I have never seen such big Yorkshire puddings!

Tricia and Alan

Enormous Yorkshire pudding

It was great to catch up with everyone from dancing, where I meet them and Katherine originally. It can be hard to keep in touch when I am thousands of miles away and we all have such busy lives. But it was a great day. The disco was fun, which I expected given the number of dancers there!

Cutting the cake

First dance

Dancing with Grandma

Father-Daughter dance

Line dancing was bound to happen at some point.

We didn't have any of the evening buffet as we were still full from the dinner! But there was a ferris wheel with pick 'N'mix which was great fun.

Pick 'N' Mix ferris wheel

It was a great day and every one had such a good time. Katherine never stopped smiling! :-)

On Sunday we had a lazy morning and lunch at the Ribble Pilot (which is on the docks in Preston; we used to go to on a regular basis when I lived there), before going to see Katherine's new house. Her and Philip decided to have a party on the Sunday afternoon so the party didn't have to stop! The house was lovely and huge! We didn't stay long as we had to drive back. The drive back was not fun as it took about twice the usual time but it was worth it. It was a great weekend and worth the spending christmas in the US.

Graduation!

So the day finally arrived and I had the PhD graduation ceremony.
I wasn't going to attend but my family wanted me to go (and with everything happening at home, it was nice to have something good to celebrate!).
Mom, Dad and I travelled up to Preston on Friday morning in torrential down pour. The motorway was a nightmare. Once we arrived and recovered, we headed to the Guild hall to pick up my gown and hat, and for the professional photos, and for Dad to take his photos with his snazzy camera. :-)
Once all the was done, we went to lunch with Katherine and Tricia, me trying very hard to look cool and casual and fit in walking around St. Georges. :-)
Lunch was lovely (at Raffles - Yum!). Then it was back into the rain (which was running down the streets like a river) and my very large umbrella (still got wet) and off to the Guild Hall.
Now, after graduating from the Great hall in Birmingham, it was a bit of a let down. Really not as impressive. I was sat on the back row which was fine by me. And I got lucky. The people I was sitting next to were awesome. On my left was an engineering masters student who was already in his first year of a PhD elsewhere. On my right was a girl from computing who has also finished her PhD. We had a really good laugh at some of the speeches and how different the views of the people on stage were to the the people who actually went through the courses.
After the ceremony (where I am glad to say I made it safely up and down the stairs though I wasn't sure when to go up the stairs at first - they read out your thesis title; I had forgotten mine was that long!), we headed back to the hotel for a break and a cuppa.
On the evening, mom, dad, Katherine and I went to Duk for a really nice meal (and few bottles of wine!). The food was really nice and they were really helpful as always (especially with Katherine who has food allergies but not normal ones). Then it was off to the Studio for dancing. Well, more sitting as I haven't danced in so long, I don't know any of the current dances. Plus I found dancing after the equivalent of a bottle of wine is harder than it seems. Normal dancing is fine, but when you have to go in the same direction and at the same time as everyone else, it's not so easy! Still it was a great night.
And a pretty good day, (especially since I was dreading it!)
:-)

Very pleased and relieved!

Weekend in Preston (sort of)

I spent last weekend in Preston having a great time with my friends.
On Saturday, I meet Katherine, Tricia, Alan, and Alan's parent to go to see Heidi's dance show. Heidi is Tricia's niece, and studies dance with the aim of working on the cruise ships. The show was amazing. Very professional and slick. The moves were effortless and some of the lifts were amazing.
On the evening, Katherine and I went to Pond for a meal. We had a very nice bottle of wine and a lot of food. (We went a little over the top.) We could barely move after it.
Sunday was a beach day. After a few errands in Preston, we picked up Abi and Kitt and went to Southport. To start off we played crazy golf.

Katherine kept the score

Kitt, the new Tiger Woods

Abi, waiting her turn

I got trounced. Apparently mini golf is not not my sport as I got my ass kicked by a 6 yr old. Though I  am suspicious of his counting! And every one managed to get a hole-in-one. Except me. After all that hot work, we went for the first ice cream/ice-lolly of the year.

Enjoying our post-golf reward

After that we wondered down to the sea front. As it is Southport, the sea was nowhere in sight. But we were going to let that stop us from paddling. So we paddled in the puddles instead and had a great time hunting for shells and finding crabs. We found some really big ones and a sea urchin shell, which is rare this far north. And we got very messy and muddy!

Kitt with his new shell collection.

Sunday evening, Katherine and I meet Tricia at King Dynasty, the best Chinese in Preston. They do a great set menu, which is really nice and great value for money. We spent 3 hours eating, catching up and setting the world to rights.
All in all, a really great weekend. :-)

Spa Day and Markets

Last week, thanks to a LivingSocial voucher, I went with 2 friends, Tricia and Katherine, to Spa 303 at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester. It was fantastic. We were booked in for facials and the sauna, steam room, pool and jacuzzi.

The pool is above the lounge of the reception and has windows looking from inside the pool downwards. Unfortunately I didn't see any one through the windows, even though I did send a fair amount of time swimming down and looking. :-)
The pool area was surrounded by 3 walls of glass. The view from the main wall was dull but the view at the two ends was better.

So we all spent time in the pool and jacuzzi. It was nice just to relax.

 The facial was lovely. My skin felt great afterwards. We were all a little worried as it was described as a pressure point and drainage massage. What are they draining!?! I was a little unconvinced by a facial massage. She ran a roller over my face which was a bit odd. But, overall, it was really relaxing.

After the spa, we went into the Christmas markets and meet up with some others.

The markets were very nice (the same Christmas market you find in every main city in the UK this time of year but still, nice). The main problem with these markets is there is too much food to try in one go. It is very hard to choose which to have! I was also surprised how early it closed on the evening. But by that time, we were all tired anyway, so after a drink at the pub, headed home.

It was a very nice day and great to just send time with some friends relaxing. Definitely a must-do again!