Tuesday
Feeling seriously worse for wear this morning. Tim jumped on a plane back down to Devon from Belfast. Wondering if I would even survive the day, I managed to sleep on Tim all the way back, felt much better once I'd woken up!
It was a lovely evening so we decided to head to Codden Hill, which is a short drive away. I managed to stay on the correct side of the road and negotiate the tiny lanes after 6 months driving on the wrong side of the road. This place is a nice spot to go for a short walk up onto the top of a hill that has awesome views over North Devon. You can see the sea, the beaches, Exmoor, Dartmoor and even Cornwall in the distance. Lovely way to spend the evening. On the way home we did our good deed for the day and helped a baby calf who was wondering about the lanes back into the field with, what we hope was, his mother.
Wednesday
Today was spent hanging out with my younger brother Mike. The three of us went into the local town, Barnstaple, (the metropolis that is...) we had a nice lunch in Pizza Express and headed to Orange Wednesday, yay for 2 for 1 cinema tickets to see the Transformers 2 movie. So cheesy I was laughing out loud at moments, not at good as the first one by any stretch of the imagination. Ask Tim and he'll say it was rubbish, although I secretly kinda liked it...
Thursday
We decided that Thursday would be beach day at the beginning of the week. So predictably again, it poured with rain. I had been looking forward to going surfing for months. So again in typical British style we went anyways. There was a massive 1 foot of surf so my brother and I valiantly attempted to surf. Caught a few good waves. Admittedly it was probably the most easy going surfing I've done in a while. you would get a few little waves and then a surfable one, then none for a few mins... just had to catch the one good one when it eventually came along!
Annoyingly Tim wasn't able to try out surfing for the first time. Mike and I have our own wetsuits and boards, so we planned to hire them for Tim at the beach. Only when we arrived the rental guy seemed to think it was too rainy and said he was closing early so he could watch Neighbours and Home and Away.... hmmmm.
We did admit defeat when it came to the BBQ and had this at home instead. With great delight I headed to Tescos and trawled the shelves for all the things that I had been missing since I've been away. Although apparently Tesco no longer produces the burgers I had been craving for so long, guess I must of been the only one buying them... Still awesome comfort food and made me very happy.
Friday
Tim and I took the day for ourselves. The sun was shining and I could finally show Tim Devon in its best light. The Sun! We went off to the beach. As you near the the beaches the roads get smaller and windier, lifts my heart every time as I drive around the cliffs between the beaches. There's a bunch of well placed lay bys that look over Saunton Sands, where you can get some lovely views. We then headed on to Croyde Bay and walked along the National Trust footpath around Baggy Point. Great being able to look out over the Atlantic sea, really feel at home on the coast, very refreshing.
Next came raiding the surf shops for some new clothes, and yummy Devon cream ice-cream in Croyde. It was so hot they melted way before we had time to eat them, it was definitely a challenge! We finished of with an awesome roast dinner at home, nice one Mum, and an awesome night down at the Bell with some of my childhood friends, Marc and Neil. Great way to end my time back in Devon.
SaturdaySaturday saw us heading up to London on the train (a very excited Tim!). As we were only in town for the afternoon we decided that the easiest answer, instead of giving everyone allotted times to come and see us, that we would just plonk ourselves in a bar and let people come to us!
Covent Garden was really sunny and busy and lovely as usual. London in general was chaos as a bunch of roads were closed for London Pride Parade.
It was awesome to see everyone that turned up. Really appreciated everyone making the effort to come and see us for our brief return. Much love to Lindsay, Chappers, Beccy, Val, my cousin Jasper and his girlfriend, Matt and Dawn, Pat Kua and Xuemin. Meant a lot to see everyone. It was lovely being in London again. Hopefully we will be back one day not to far away...
Tim and I then spent the rest of the evening together walking around London, along the river, enjoying the evening sun and being able to spend some time together.
Sunday
We headed back to Chicago on the Sunday. Thankfully the trip went swimmingly. Always good when that happens!
We arrived in Chicago in the afternoon and headed back to Tim's. It was nice to spend a night there before heading back to Calgary the next day. It was just brilliant being able to spend a whole week together with Tim, instead of the usual stolen weekend every couple of weeks. Can't wait till we can spend the week together every week.
I was very special for me having Tim with me this week. Lovely to show him my world and a great way to round off our first 6 months together.
Being back in the UK was great. I've really missed it. Although now I'm struggling to work out what city or even country I'm in. A lot crammed into a week but totally worth it.
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