A Short Trip Home

We flew back to the UK 2 weeks ago for a short holiday including Ali and Rhi's wedding in Oxford. We had a wonderful break and the wedding was a fantastic day everyone enjoyed.

Alastair picked us up from Heathrow feeling a little jaded after our night flight. It wouldn't have been so bad but the builders opposite the flat had decided to lay the concrete floor the night before. This has to be laid down in one piece or there will be a weak line which may break but they only had an old, small, cranky and very loud concrete mixer so it took 21 hours!

We spent Saturday seeing Ali and Rhi's new flat and shopping for our wedding accessories. It was a great chance to catch up and plan for the following weekend. I would be wearing one of the Ugandan dresses I bought in Mbale last October so I needed a hat, shoes and bag to go with it. We found nearly everything including a white shirt for Glen and returned to the flat for lunch.

We travelled back to York on Saturday evening on a TRAIN! It was the first train I had been on for nearly 2 years. The journeys I make for work to Gulu, Lira, Soroti etc would be so much quicker and more comfortable if there were trains.

On Sunday we took my Mum out to the seaside at Filey for a late birthday trip. Unfortunately we chose a very cold windy day. It was lovely to see the sea and we all enjoyed a Sunday lunch on the way.

We had 3 more days in York and spent the days shopping and sorting out admin and the evenings meeting up with friends and family in and around Poppleton. We brought back 2 suitcases full of the things we want to keep and managed to squeeze most of this into the store. It's going to be a voyage of discovery when we get to unpack it all.

We enjoyed exploring York again and taking pictures of some of our favourite places.

On Thursday and Friday most people travelled down to Oxford ready for the wedding on Saturday. I arrived on Thursday to stay with an ex VSO volunteer from Gulu. It was great to catch up with what we've been doing in Uganda and Oxford respectively for the past 5 months. We went into the centre of Oxford on Thursday evening to meet up with Alastair and Rhian and several of the wedding party for a street food market in the castle area.

On Friday morning Mum and I had a tour of Oxford with the father of the bride, who had studied there. Then later in the day Glen arrived with his mother. On Friday evening we all went to a restaurant on the outskirts of Oxford for a huge family meal and planning of the big day. More on the wedding in the next blog!