The land-locked costal town: Matlock

Spent a few hours on Saturday in Matlock. It reminds me of Astoria, OR (minus the ocean, of course).

Loads of knick knack and souvenir type shops, and Fish 'n' Chips eateries. Several arcades and museums. We chose to go to the Aquarium. They had fossils, shells, and a petrifying well, plenty of fish, and a hologram museum.

The main attraction for the city is the Heights of Abraham. You ride a tram up the mountainside. At the top is a tower you can climb to see the valley below. There are also caverns, with guided tours, and a fossil museum. Unfortunately, all of it was closed. We couldn't even walk to the top. January has not been a fun month, there isn't much to do because of the weather. Fortunately, things start opening up again in a few weeks. We're hoping to see Nottingham Castle this weekend.

The holidays

 It most certainly did not feel like Christmas this year.
Very few homes had decorations on the outside.
No big Christmas parties.
No Snow.
We did have a tree, though. It's about a foot high, "baby" pine tree. We decorated our baby tree with mini-lights, painted pull tabs and bottle caps, and bead strings.

 

We opened the gifts from my parents and each other on Christmas morning. I got a coat, thermals, and socks from my parents (much needed items). Shaun got a few shirts and Levi brand pants (trousers) from my parents. He got a watch, Xbox headset, and Toy Story "Bucket O' Soldiers" from me. I got a beautiful necklace from him.

We had Christmas dinner at his mom's house and exchanged gifts with his family. We also opened Christmas crackers, this was a new experience for me. Christmas crackers are tubes filled with goodies and random little things. You pull one end, while someone pulls the other. When it breaks open it makes a small bang from the firecracker-type-device inside. Once it's opened, you can find out what you got. Ours had little, wind-up bath toys. They also contain paper crowns and a piece of paper with a joke and games on it. According to the Internet:
"The idea of wearing a paper crown may have originated from the Twelfth Night celebrations, where a King or Queen was appointed to look over the proceedings." 

The day after Christmas is also a holiday, Boxing Day. Boxing Day is the equivalent of Black Friday. Stores open at ridiculous hours and have insane sales and bargains, which people line up around the block for. And according to the Internet, again:
"Boxing Day is so called because it was the custom on that day for tradesmen to collect their Christmas boxes or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year."
We ended up going to Shaun's mom's again and eating left-overs from Christmas. It was a nice day to relax after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.  

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. We went to a house party where we had plenty to drink. I got to see Dance Central on the Xbox Kinect...It brought back fond memories of Paco and I on Just Dance, for the Wii :P
Kinect is one of the coolest things I've seen for a console. Almost worth buying an Xbox for...almost. I also got to meet some good people.

Buffalo Wings and Christmas

Most of my family and minimal friends have had the pleasure of meeting Shaun. He wasn't in Utah for very long. I met him on May 20, 2010, and sent him off on July 4, 2010. We spent a lot of that time getting to know each other, and spending time together. I also introduced him to Buffalo Wings, which he loves!

We spent last weekend in Nottingham's City Center, Christmas shopping mainly. There's a TGI Friday's in Nottingham that he's been wanting to try out, to see if it's anything like the ones in Utah (also to see if they have Buffalo wings). After a few hours of shopping we stopped off at TGI's to eat. It's a little like the one's in the US, but didn't have all the stuff on the walls. They had a lot of the same food, even the Buffalo wings! The wings were just like the ones back home, which Shaun was happy about.

Our day was busy, Shaun got a new laptop and World of Warcraft...I got nothing, everything I was looking for was out of stock :( The city of Nottingham has about 6 times the population that Salt Lake City has (according to the Internet, anyway). It was like Black Friday everywhere! Mobs of people all over the place, it wasn't easy to get around. I was able to stop and snap some photos of the street from a bridge...You can see a small portion of the mobs near the crosswalk.
There's a big Christmas tree in the city center, with an ice skating rink and a carousel. I couldn't get a picture, but hope to next time I'm in town.
The week has been slightly uneventful, due to Shaun's working schedule but he has a 3-day weekend. He did make me breakfast-in-bed this morning. Poached eggs, English bacon, and baked beans over toast! Delicious!

Getting here in the first place

I've been here nearly 4 weeks...but I'll start from when I got here.
My travel time was approximately 13 hours. I got 3 hours of sleep. I was exhausted when I got to the UK border patrol. I hand the patrol officer my landing card and passport, and he starts asking me questions about how much money I have with me and in the bank, why I'm here, etc. Then he began to ask me why I don't have a job. I explain that I had to quit due to the amount of time I would be here-apparently this was a problem. Visiting my boyfriend, without a job to go home to, for an extended period of time. At this point, the officer began asking me more personal questions about my boyfriend: "How long have you been with your boyfriend physically?", "When is his birthday?", "What does he do for a job?", etc.  He then continues to tell me that he's going to have to detain me while they call Shaun and interview him.
I freaked out.
They put me in a holding area (some benches surrounded by a rail, with locking gates) and told me someone would be with me in a moment. A woman came around and got me, we picked up my bags, and she searched them. She then took me back to the holding area, where I had to wait for approval to enter the country. While in the holding area I saw a transvestite, a man dressed as a woman, which made me smile. After what seemed like forever, the original officer returned and unlocked the gates. He let me know that he found Shaun and had a physical interview, rather than the phone interview. Then he let me know I was approved to enter the country. I was very relieved. He explained that the fact that I was here for my boyfriend, in combination with not having a job and being here for so long, they were concerned I was running away to get married and illegally gain citizenship to the UK. I thanked the officer, his boss (the one who gave me the final approval) and the guy that stamped my passport.
This entire process took over an hour, I was on little sleep, and this was the first time traveling outside of the US. You can try to imagine how I was feeling during the whole process...

It had been over 4 months since I had seen Shaun. It was amazing to see him after coming through the gates...

To be continued...