Coventry & London

He's there, the Phantom of the Opera....at Her Majesty's Theatre! The show was amazing...and though the stage initially looked small, the theatre only presents the one show and so there were little touches that made it a very impressive performance - from the candles rising from the floor of the Phantom's lair to the chandelier falling from the ceiling. It's the 21st Anniversary of the play and just imagine, it's been going on twice a day for that long? That's a long time...

Also saw Cambria before and after the show - had a brunch of cottage pie and dinner of a fancy pizza and a pint in a pub, a lovely day in London, except for the weather. The rain kept us from walking too far, and oddly enough did not see any London-y things like the houses of parliament or the London eye at all...only saw the river on the bus on the way out and Trafalgar square because Cambria was studying near the National Gallery. I also found out I do not like the way the English concoct chai tea lattes...

Before London on Tuesday, I arrived in Coventry on Sunday afternoon via a fairly comfortable train and met Regis and rainy weather. We went to dinner at a American-Italian place that could have been a Marie Callendars or Applebees called Frankie & Benny's. My dollar conversions hurt my little wallet's feelings, though I have been good about money so far. On the drive home, it started snowing! Enough to stick until morning even, but the weather has since been off and on rain. The next day I went with Regis to Warwick University and saw the campus and sat in one of the many cafes on campus and read while he attended a class. That evening we went out for dinner again - this time TGI Friday's and splurged and had filet mignons which were very good - followed by store-bought ice cream with custard on top. Tuesday was London and today was a quieter day with me catching up with photos and bloggie and doing some laundry and baking peanut butter cookies whilst Regis went to work. Tomorrow we're going to Oxford in the evening, so I will have another tale to tell then!

Facebook is hosting my photos as Flickr only allows you to have 200 photos total and I think that's dumb. More photos will be posted as I take them.

Littleborough, Manchester & Hebden Bridge

Ah, England. Gloomy skies, a variety of accents, slang words and road signs one doesn't hear too often in the States, and driving on the other side of the road...but all wonderful! My flights were fine, sort of on time and no lost luggage - plus a fairly delicious bbq beef dinner served on the transatlantic flight.

Some highlights so far:

• Unusual Signs - My favorite sign so far has been one of those 'look out for...children, or elk, or tractors' signs, but with 'Watch for Elderly People' instead, with some silhouettes of little old people with canes and walkers on it.


• Taking the train - so fun to just hop on a train and go somewhere, instead of driving everywhere. It costs £2.90 for a roundtrip ticket to go to Manchester from Littleborough.


• British Telly - better than the small sampling of BBC America, though I see now that BBC America does give quite the variety of normal shows on television here. American shows are on quite regularly as well, I saw Scrubs and CSI shows on the guide...


• Pub food - I had cottage pie in a pub, with peas and chips (thick-cut French fries to the Yanks out there...) with some Heinz mint sauce on the side. It was delicious and fairly inexpensive.


• Exploring Manchester & surrounding areas - I've walked along muddy canals with sheep in the hills, poked around a used book shop, looked at Prada and Dolce & Gabbana attire and seen two museums for free - Natural History and Science and Industry. The tiger I'm high-fiving here is from the Natural History Museum. In the Science & Industry museum, there was a hands-on section for kids, and I was having such fun playing with the bubbles and mirrors and other kid-oriented stations - while Stasys was embarrassed but I'm sure secretly thought it was fun too.

On Saturday, Stasys and I decided to go outside of Littleborough for the day, but since Wales, Scotland and York were all several hours away by car and neither of us are familiar with getting there, etc - we decided to just pick a city that the train from Littleborough went to. Halifax was on the map printed in larger letters and was only a 5 pound trip, so we decided to check it out. The weather was sunny, but quite cold and breezy and Halifax did not hold any cool looking coffee shops or cafes that were screaming 'come on in, Love, and try our Yorkshire pudding!' so we ended up walking around the main promenade of several stores and discovered a market building with a big open courtyard with stall vendors and little peculiar shops tucked in the building surrounding it. There was a glass blower's shop and a weird gothic/fantasy store crammed with more dragon and fairy statues than I've ever seen, and a used bookstore where I bought a delightful hardcover 1953 edition of a book about the nature of boys, "the unfair sex." We then decided Halifax had nothing more to offer, and so we headed back to Littleborough via the train. I was treated to Lithuanian food cooked by his mother, and it was a pleasant surprise to have pancakes with curd and curd dumplings again!

More on the way...going to Coventry tomorrow and Phantom of the Opera in London this week!!