Brett in the house!

Brett Rollins is in England!

Brett Rollins has been an incredibly friend for well over a decade. We met in our first class on the first day of freshman year at UNC. Like any friendship of that duration, we’ve seen each other through some great and some tough times. Some favorite memories are traveling through South America and Europe together, him singing at Chris and my wedding, and our crazy times at university. Brett just finished up his first year of pharmacy school, so decided to spend ten days here before his next semester begins. Whoohoo! Let another adventure begin!

Brett and me sandboarding in Peru, 2006.

Brett is fascinated by the mystical, so we kicked the trip off by going to Stonehenge.  The sky was so dynamic during our couple hours there and we took way too many pictures trying to capture it!  Brett was content to just sit and soak up the history and mystery of the place… all it took was a steady caffeine drip!  After a slow wander around the monument, we bought some sandwiches and hiked a few minutes to one of the barrows (burial mounds) that overlooks the area to eat our lunch.



Stonehenge



Crazy sky over Stonehenge.

Brett in front of Stonehenge.

Burrow yoga.

Brett liked Stonehenge so much we decided to go Avebury, another henge (stone circle surrounded by earthwork , usually a ditch) a half an hour away.  I’ve never been to Avebury and was really, really charmed by it!  It’s nothing like Stonehenge.  The two biggest differences are that the individual stones are accessible and you’re encouraged to touch them, and the circle is almost a mile around as opposed to the condensed ring of stones at Stonehenge.  Avebury’s stone circle is so large that a town was actually built inside the ring.  We parked and walked by a cricket game (I still don’t understand that game at all) and then made our way to the little visitors center.  A walking tour was leaving a bit later so we continued Brett’s caffeine binge and had some tea with a clotted cream and jam scone. 

Our tour guide handed out ponchos, which turned out to be a great idea as the rain came down in little spurts from sporadic dark clouds that never actually blocked the sun.   English weather is so weird.  Our tour guide was cute and full of sarcastic humor against Stonehenge.   She reminded us that Avebury is better, older, and bigger than ‘that other place’.  Brett thinks, and I agree, that Avebury doesn’t come across in snapshots as well, and that’s the only reason it isn’t more famous than Stonehenge.   

Avebury stone circle and earthwork mound.

Our funny tour guide.

Some of Avebury's stones are huge!

We drove the couple hours home in time to eat some dinner and watch some Olympics before heading to bed.  Monday we didn’t do too much, because Tuesday we were off to London for the Olympics!  We left early enough to get to London Bridge to take a photo of the Olympic rings and then headed to the Olympic Park.  The Park was huge!  There’s a whole separate blog (just previous to this one) about the Olympics, so I’ll skip it here.  We did have a great time watching handball and then headed back home afterwards. 

Harry Potter humor at Kings Cross train station.

Coffee in hand, always, Brett and me with the Beefeater.

Touristy picture that I love!

HAHAHA.

Chris had to go to work on Wednesday, so Brett and I drove to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the home of Shakespeare just over an hour away from our house.  Brett and I had bought afternoon tickets to the play Much Ado About Nothing put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company.  We got to Stratford early enough to eat lunch (after forgetting our cooler, oops) and walk around the storybook-cute town for a bit before getting to the Courtyard Theater.  The play was absolutely funny and entertaining.  It was Shakespeare’s play but set in modern India – and the twist absolutely worked.   The theater itself was cozy and comfortable.  We wandered around town a little more after the play, drinking coffee and eating a gigantic meringue.  We peaked at Shakespeare’s house and then headed back home for dinner. 

Being classy in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Royal Shakespeare Company.

The play we saw.

The cute theater where we saw the play.

Great set.

The theater after intermission.

Harvard house.

Brett in front of Shakespeare's house.

Shakespeare's house.

Love this picture of me and Brett in super-cute Stratford-upon-Avon.

Friday we had plans for a BIG night out in London.  After a nap and a bit of shopping in Huntingdon, we ate dinner when Chris got home from work and then headed into the city. I should’ve mentioned that Brett is a martini-drinking, late-night-going-out, city boy.  Chris and I haven’t been awake past 11:00 other than to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics… LOL.  We had been mentally preparing for days.  Brett had come up with a sort of ‘club itinerary’ and we were along for the ride. I knew we were in for trouble when he booked a hotel for us because the last train home at 2 AM train “wasn’t nearly late enough”…   We were a little behind ‘schedule’ when we got into London so a superfast change and quick glass of champagne in the hotel room and we jumped into a black cab to take us to a bar called Proud Camden.  The first few seconds were hilarious… we walked in and Brett groaned  out loud, “Oh nooooooo!”    We had walked into a room that was empty except for a DJ and one bartender.  Hilarious.  He walked straight back to the bouncer who laughed and told him to go through the doors at the far end of the room.  Ohhhhhhhh.  We ended up in a great area with renovated horse stalls on either side (some of which had stripper poles, none of which were in use).  How did I get here, again?  Haha.  Ok, so we walked through the bustle of the horse stable thingy and then we were outside in a relaxed (and so much more my style) bar.  We got a drink and had a great time for a while, then danced for a while, then found another room with a DJ that alternated between Snoop Dog and rock (huh?!) and then Brett announced it was time to move to the KoKo, the next club on our itinerary.  Sure!  We walked outside and had the most hilarious moment of Brett suddenly changing his mind but it being too late (the line was full of cuties trying to get in but there was no re-entry to the place).  LOL.  He decided to stick to Plan A and we took a cab to KoKo, a club set in a huge old-timey theater.  The inside was gorgeous – red and gold paint and 4 levels overlooking a center stage.  Too bad the center stage was occupied by some rapper named Smilo(actually it was Smiler, just kept sounding like Smilo with the accent) who needed to have serious words with his sound crew.  It sounded BAD, like high school band at prom bad except on steroids.  After twenty minutes of torture we seriously debated leaving but suddenly Smilo left, the screen came down, and normal pitch and volume dance music came on.  Yay!  We had a seriously good time dancing and being dumb.  There were some Olympians in the place, too, which was fun.  Chris and I were determined to let Brett be the one who ended the night, and around 3:30 he said “I’d be okay leaving if you guys are ready.”  We totally played it cool, “I guess so, I mean, if you’re ready.”  Aw, I did love the experience.

In the cab on the way to Proud Camden.

One happy, one sad to be leaving the first bar.  LOL.

KoKo

KoKo

The next morning I woke up as if I had gone to bed at normal time, so went on a breakfast and coffee-finding mission.  We all got up and moving and went to the Tate Museum of Modern Art.  None of us had ever been, and it’s free, so we decided to give it a go.  Survey says: I don’t get or like or enjoy about 90% of modern art.  Chris doesn’t get it at all.  Brett enjoyed maybe half of it? 

Coffee in hand at least 89% of the time.

Me and Brett in front of Big Ben.

Tate Museum of Modern Art.

At Tate Modern.

Fish swimming in a pond.

"I don't get it."

The rest of the day was relaxing and lazy… until about 9:00PM when Chris signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon for the next morning.   Long story, but he ordered fancy wheels for his bike months ago that only arrived a few days after our Ironman.  He wanted to try them out, so had been looking for a race nearby and this one, only three miles from the house, had an opening for him the night before the race.  So after a Friday night of drinking, Saturday walking around London on very little sleep, and a burger for dinner he was set to race on Sunday… not an ideal pre-race regimen! He had a fantastic race, finishing in around 2:25, and it was fun to cheer him on (you could’ve have paid me to get in the water!)  Brett made us brunch when we got home, yum!! 

Surprise!  Olympic Tri, registered that morning and did great, finishing in 2:25!

 

I feel like the rest of Brett’s trip involved food and/or drink.  We picked potatoes and veggies from the garden for all our meals, went on a walk around Brampton that ended in buying and eating a delicious meat pie from our local butcher, going to the farm shop for cheese and sausage for dinner one night (best meal of the trip!), and drinking local beers and ciders.  Oh, and we went to our favorite place – the Brampton Mill – on Monday night, which was perfect.  I feel like ten days almost wasn’t enough time to catch up but it was incredibly good to have such quality time to hang out. I’m scared that the next time we visit it’ll be in NYC, and I can only imagine what trouble we’ll get into! 

Brampton church.

Brampton Mill.

Inside Brampton Mill.