Mountain Biking in Langsett

This past weekend the weather was finally nice enough to mountain biking again. It quickly became one of our favorite weekend activities, last fall. I have been looking forward to the weather getting nice enough for us to enjoy this activity again. In anticipation for nice weather we bought a new book showing rides in the Dark Peak region, near Sheffield.

The ride we selected in near a town of Langsett. There was a beautiful reservoir on the ride. We stared on a easy road work that lead to a path with a gentle slops. We were supposed to turn off the main path and add an additional loop. This section was SUPER muddy. After not being able to get any traction I told Arthur to go ahead and I would take the short cut on a path with a LOT let mud and I would bike toward him on the other side of the short cut. This was the best decision! Arthur had to basically walk 1k, because the mud was so bad. The path I took was perfect… the ground was a little tacky but not really muddy and it was a very well maintained trail. I then met up with him and we road back on the best past. After the first loop, Arthur went out for a second loop cutting out the muddy section… I went for a walk around the reservoir, so he wouldn’t have to wait for me to keep up.

The first picture is Arthur coming down towards the reservoir.

This is the reservoir.

Another (this was from my walk)

And Arthur riding away while I am still taking photos...

Because we both have bright yellow biking jackets I could spot him a mile a way and took several pictures him biking up the hill towards me.

He is cranking it up the hill! I am sure I make it look a lot more difficult!

Pancakes

America, WAKE UP and heat up that frying pan, for today is Pancake day!

As is tradition in the UK, the day before Lent starts (Shrove tuesday, fat-tuesday, mardi-gras, or whatever you wish to call it), we make a point of using up all the butter, eggs, etc that are all banned during this period of fasting, and what better way to use all these up than by making pancakes. Well, if you are going to do this properly like me, then I don't simply use up any left-overs, I go out and buy more ingredients, lots more ingredients to be exact. And then I cook.

Now listen up, Pancakes in the UK are somewhat different from the US variety...

US pancakes are exactly what it the describes itself to be, a cake in a pan, thick and fluffy.

UK pancakes would be better described as a paper thin sheet of batter, cooked for no more than a few seconds each side; it is not thick and definitely not fluffy. Basically, a french crepe or a thinner version of a flour tortilla.

Sounds tasty doesn't it. That's because they are.

The beauty of these pancakes is in their versatility. They can be made sweet or savory depending on taste, ice-cream, salsa, chicken, roast veg, take your pick. And if you are still hungry after all that, then your next pancake is only about a minute away.

As for me, I get very excited about Pancake day. I will eat it which ever way you prepare it: hot, cold, sweet, savory, flat, rolled. I'm easy.

Tonight, we are going to a friends house for a Pancake party. Plenty of fillings are on offer apparently. I must admit though, all this talk of Pancakes has my sweet tooth come to the fore and therefore I cannot wait to sample the delights of a Pancake filled with a healthy helping of Ben & Jerry's ice cream! Mmmmmmmmm! Pancakes!

Many people (myself included) think that Pancake day should be a national holiday; for some reason the powers that be disagree!!

Incidentally, this time last year, when Danielle and myself had just started dating, she refused my offer of Pancakes on Pancake day as she failed to understand its significance. Wow, that was almost a dealbreaker for me...! After much explaining about Pancakes Danielle came round to the idea (albeit about a week later), lucky for us otherwise our relationship might have turned out little crepe.

More info about Pancakes can be found here

AC

Pub lunches

One big cultural difference is the pub lunch. In America you say you want to go for a pub lunch, most people would think "Awesome greasy bar food". You would get served such things as hamburgers, french fries, onion rings, and chicken wings. Some bars have great food. But in England most serve a Sunday roast, which could be a roast turkey, beef, pork, or lamb. This is served with a Yorkshire pudding, veggies (carrots, broccli,) Roasted potatoes and gravy.

This past Sunday Arthur and I went to a Pub Lunch with several friend (there were 10 of us in total). We ventured out to the country to a Pub called Dick Hudsons

This was a very cute pub with little saying all over the place.

There are no strangers at Dick Hudsons... only friends who are yet to meet.

Niall enjoying a beer and Sunday roast.

Everyone digging in to there meal.

Then after a great meal, most of us enjoyed a dessert. I even got Arthur to share a dessert with me... Warm Chocolate Brownie with Ice cream... YUMMY!



Then upon leaving the boys thought it would be fun to start a snow ball fight... Which is always a great time


Last here is a few pic of a snowy Yorkshire country on our drive back to Leeds.

People sledding down the hill in the snow.

The new pad

Arthur and I moved officially moved in together on Feb 1st. And have spent the past week making the new place a home. This would include our trip to Ikea yesterday… in which we spent over two hours walking through the store. Our house was already furnished with all Ikea furniture. So we purchased a few things to make the place feel more like home and to make it more organized.

The first picture is our new place 22 Norman Mount. It is a back to back terrace.



We live on a very steep hill, and I have to parallel park, which I am not a fan. It was my only draw back for the house. On the positive side, it was the most reasonable in price for what the house was. In other houses we saw it seems the owner would upgrade the kitchen, but then only put in a tiny fridge with an ice-box for a freezer.


As you can see our kitchen is nice, but doesn’t have much space, which is typical for UK houses. We do have a full fridge and freezer.




From the kitchen you can walk down in to our basement / cellar. Right now this just a big empty room, where we are going to store our luggage and bikes.



The laundry room is also down here… through the doorway.

If you go back up stair to the main floor then through the kitchen you enter the living room.



This is where we added the area rug, throws, pillows, DVD bookcase, wine rack, but most importantly our Colorado poster and Colorado Map.











Then you go upstairs to the first floor, we have our master bedroom and bathroom on this floor. We still need to get pictures for this room, and getting one more end table but it is almost complete.


Then there is our lime green bathroom… it is very bright, but helps wake me up in the morning.

On the top floor or second floor we have the office and second bedroom.

We are getting a duvet for this room, but have purchased pillows for the bed.



The view from upstairs is great, but hard to tell because of the snow....

That is the new pad. Hope you enjoyed the tour… oh and please come visit!

Plans are starting to form

Wedding plans are starting to come together. First off we have a date!!! Mark your calenders for August 8, 2009. I have only now just realized that we are it is on the 8th day of the 8th month.

Due to a lot of help from family we have a Reception Hall, a Chapel to get married in, and a location for a rehearsal dinner. (Thanks Mom for helping with the reception location and chapel... Thanks Dad and Charly for helping with the rehearsal dinner) It is all very exciting and nerve racking to make these decisions, but Arthur is great at making me feel comfortable that we are making the right choices. The best advice I have received came from Arthur's father, Hereward. He told us that it is going to be the happiest day of our lives and the only thing that really matters is us both getting to the church and committing our lives to each other. Everything else is just added bonuses.

Another great thing I have noticed is how supportive and encouraging everyone has been, we have a fire mantel full of Congratulation cards from friends and family. Many say what a wonderful guys Arthur is and I am lucky to have him... which i completely agree with. So thank you to everyone for all the wonderful and positive messages. I am so excited to start my life with Arthur and hope that many of you will be able to make it to Colorado to join us on our wedding day!

SKYPE

Hello all,

For an easy way to contact me please read the instructions Arthur so kindly wrote for me...

Skype is a means of calling friends and family, wherever they may be in the World, via your Internet connection. The best thing about it is that it is completely free when calling from computer to computer, so what are you waiting for! It takes literally 5mins to do…

Go to www.skype.com and click download

Once you have completed the next couple of steps Skype should now be installed to your computer (if you have multiple computers, you will have to install it to each one).

A Welcome to Skype screen will appear asking you for your Skype name and password. Click on don’t have a Skype name and create a Skype account.

Once you are signed in you can search for people, add them to your contacts and then start talking! Some computers will require a headset, but these are available for very little Best Buy, Walmart, amazon etc. (make sure they are Skype compatible –most are). As well, webcams can be attached to add to the whole experience! Make sure you search for me!

The Proposal

The engagement.

Even the worst blogger in the world has to write a message about this… As some of you know I am now engaged. ☺

Thought I would give a little background info first:

As many people know, I left the US to go the UK on January 19, 2008. I was going over for work and the last thing I was thinking about was a relationship. After just being here for a few weeks, I went out with a running group and met Arthur.
We instantly clicked and started hanging out. After date 5 he finally kissed me… or as I remember it I kissed him. Since then we have spent most of our free time together. It has been almost exactly 9 months. This past week was Arthur’s half term from school (Half term is a week off school for all the American readers), so we planned a trip to Italy. We spent 3 days in Rome and 3 days in Cinque Terre. I will write a detailed blog about the trip later this week, but this blog is about the proposal…

The last night we were in Cinque Terre, Arthur and I took a walk down to the Sea front…. It was beautiful, the sea was still very rough and the sun was setting. He started to make up stories to pass time, because there were other people around us… and for some reason he was stalling and didn’t want to walk to other areas. Finally when we were standing there alone. He asked me If I would marry him. I of course said Yes and gave him a huge hug and kiss. The next thing I thought was, so am I engaged? I’m still not sure it has sunk in, but I have had a permanent smile on my face since. I have been on cloud 9 and feel so blessed that I have ended up with someone who is as wonderful as Arthur.

Below is a pic right after he proposed... the next moment the camera died... so this is the only pic...