Posts Tagged "train"

Our Day In Derby

April 19th, 2009 flattley
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So, this last weekend (18 – 19 Apr 09) has been quite the weekend.

Saturday:

We wake up at 05:45am – I say we, I mean me. Got in the taxi at 07:00, arrived at the station at 07:10 ready for the 07:29 train. £55 for the tickets I hasten to add. Turns out that the train was running about 10 mins late. Should have realised what the day was gonna be like then.

We finally got to Derby and promptly headed for some breakfast because both of us were hungry – hungry enough to pay out the butt for breakfast. That was a nice and costly £14.

After breakfast, we headed out for a taxi to go to the church where the wedding was. We were foolishly thinking that it was gonna fairly cheap as it was only a couple miles away. How dumb we were – there was a £2 hire charge first of all. We jumped in and told the driver where to take us. We got ever worried as the meter approached the amount of money we had. When we got to £6.30 we had to tell the driver to pull over. We found a shop and got directions from the shop keeper to the chapel. Turned out to be a 10 min walk up hill to the church.

As we were approaching the church, the limo with the bride in pulled up to the door. We thought we were late for the wedding. Turns out she broke with tradition and was early. Luckily the kept her out there for a few more mins. We were lucky. The ceremony was a good ceremony. We sat around for what seemed like hours while the photos were taken (The part I hate the most about weddings – didn’t like having to sit around for photos at my own)

The food was quite nice. They had a carvery kinda thing going on. The most entertaining part of the reception was the camel that was sitting on the table next to us. She was chewing with her gob wide open. I looked over one time and found some food stuck on her lip and she was chewing away. Forgot we were at a wedding!

We left at about 15:30 and headed to M&S to spend a voucher we had from Christmas 2007. It was the worst decision ever – we were both tired and hot and bothered. We decided to head for the station and go home. We had to wait 40 mins in Derby for the train. We had to change at Leicester and had a 40 min wait there for our train home.

On our way home, I was messing about with the camera and i’m going to include a picture I took when we stopped at Melton Mowbray station. The woman in the pic just happened to walk by as I captured the shot. That is our photo of the week.

By the time we got home we were ready to sleep. We didn’t watch too much TV and when we got into bed we both rolled over and were asleep in no time at all.

Sunday:

Our day today has got to have been the most boring day we have ever had. We skipped church today coz we both needed our sleep from our tiresome day yesterday.

We have done nothing all day. We ended up playing Nintendo DS. We played Super Mario Brothers. I have to say that it is funny to watch Jamie as she is playing it and to hear here when she loses a life. It is very funny. Best part of it all – she gets all excited when she gets a 7-up. (To you and me, that is an extra life) That was the extent of our day. BTW – she just screamed loud coz she lost a life

Here is the pic I mentioned earlier, imposter included

Melton Mowbray with the imposter

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Safe & Well

September 17th, 2006 flattley
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So, it’s been a while since I last wrote. I know that, but i’ve not had internet so I figure it’s ok that I haven’t.

We are now in Doncaster. It’s an ok sort of place. We live in a place called Barnby Dun. It’s an old persons village that’s for sure. I never got rid of the trains though. We are right by a level crossing and there are quite a few goods trains that pass by here. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

I managed to find a job after being here for less than a week. I work for Doncaster Council in the social work section. It’s an ok job, but some stuff you read is quite disturbing.

I’ve managed to find my way around town. Ok, from home to work and church. I hear ya, it’s hardly town. You know what I mean though.

At the end of the month I start my courses for the Open University. I am doing a computing and maths course. These are going to count towards the degree that I want to do.

Other than that, there is nothing else to report – other than the fact that I got me a dang good wife!

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Time To Move

August 22nd, 2006 flattley
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Well, the time has come for Jamie and I to say a final farewell and goodbye to the town called March. You read it right – March – as in the month. I agree with you 100%, we thought it was a weird name too.

I’ve now got to try and figure out what I will miss about March, and to be honest with you – nothing really springs to mind right now. Let me see, I should be saying my family, the caravan, the noisy night time goods trains. I think the only one that is true is my family.

We are headed north to Doncaster. Although it is only 90 miles away, it is a fair trek in England. I can hear you Americans say 90 miles is nothing. I hear you, after doing 2000 miles in a car, 90 miles is a breeze.

I’m gonna put a couple of pictures in here so you all can see what wonderful things we are leaving behind on our move to Doncaster.

Not the caravan we lived in, but similar

Goods train engines that we hear all day and night

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Start Spreading The News

June 12th, 2006 flattley
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So, we are now (I say now, I mean like 3 days ago) safe and well back from our ‘experience’ of New York.

What an experience it was. We got to New York at 9:30. We queued up for a taxi for about 20 minutes.

We finally got to the British Consulate General in New York. We were there for my wife to get her visa for the UK. We queued up for about 45 minutes. Got to the window, the lady checkhed our paperwork. We paid our $494 for the process. We were told that it would be ready in an hour. 15 minutes later we collected the passport and visa. Hardly seems worth $494 to me. Oh well.

My wife can now legally live and work in England. She is super excited about that – as am I!

We then took the Subway around town. What an experience that was let me tell you. We went from Lexington to World Trade Centre. That part of the journey was ok. We got on and got off at the last stop.

We had a look around Ground Zero (well, what we could see anyway). It was very poignant for me to see it after being in London on 07/07. There were some pictures that some of the children had done as a sort of shrine to the loved ones they lost. Brought a lumpt to my throat looking at them and seeing what they have suffered.

From there we headed to Battery Park to see the welcoming lady of the USA – The Statue Of Liberty. We jumped on the train and thought we were in the front 5 cars as these are the only ones that open at the station. Turns out that we weren’t. I saw the station as we chugged along past it. We got to the next station only to figure out that we had done a circle and were right back where we started. What a nightmare that was. We managed to get into the right part of the train and we were able to see the statue.

From there, we headed to Times Square. That was pretty cool. Loads of people around though. Trying to battle people, taxis and buses is a whole load of crazy!

We headed back to the station only to figure out that our tickets were sending us back to Pennsylvania the next day. We had to queue to get those changed. Luckily that only cost us $11.

Now, we are headed out and back on our way to Utah. Goodbye Pennsylvania!

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My Weekend Away

April 9th, 2006 flattley
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Well, let me start by saying: Damn National Rail. The train I was meant to catch from my station – the 19:09 direct to where I was going – didn’t stop. Someone must have forgot to tell the driver that he needed to stop. Well, they didn’t and he went whoosh right past me and didn’t stop. How mad was I! Needless to say that it took me an extra hour to get to my destination! UGH!

I finally arrived at 21:30. Yay. Met Taylor and went to his house. On the way from the station in Nottingham, I spied a Hooters – Taylor told me that we couldn’t go. Boo Hoo. We went for the next best thing instead – KFC. This was no ordinary KFC, this was a one with an A&W on it. How pleased was I. I love root beer – I mean, more than any other drink here in plain old blighty (England to those of you not from here)

We went home and talked forever and finally went to sleep.

On the Saturday morning, we decided to go right into the Peak District to a place called Treak Cliff Cavern. My first thought was whoopee a cave (sense the sarcasm there). When I got there – after climbing what felt like the highest mountain ever (I know, you guys from across the pond are shouting it’s just a hill – be that as it may), we got to the entrance. We went on a tour of the caves in there. It turned out to be pretty cool. I got wet from all the water seeping through the rocks.

It was a nice cave though, as nice as caves can be I suppose – not that i’d know as this is the first cave i’ve been in. After the 40 minute tour ended, we went back outside and descended down the mountain to where the entrance was. Done the touristy gift shop bit. We were about to head home and it started hailing. It was so heavy, like the mountain was falling down.

After the caves, we headed into a town called Eyam. The town is famous in the Peak District for being plague infested. It was a nice little walk.

We went to the cinema to see Ice Age 2. Classic. So funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s now Sunday and I am back to what you would call life and what I would call boring as hell.

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