153 days…. or 5 months, 3 days…. or 220,320 mins….

Far out – that is how long I’ve been away from home! Can’t believe it’s been that long… 

I’m driving down south to London-town this weekend to pick up my Mum and family friend Vicky from Heathrow for their 2 month stay in the UK! They arrive sometime on the Monday 20th July (stand-by business class seats are a bit of a mission to confirm but should be around 11am London time!) and I’m taking this opportunity to spend some quality time with my best mate Amelia as well! She lives in Bladon, Woodstock with her hubby Mike, which is near Oxford. I’ve hired a car and I’m driving down this Saturday all by myself and I CANNOT wait! I’ve been looking forward to doing a road trip down South for ages as I’ve pretty much explored as far as I can North before I’d have to stay overnight.

Also, when I asked Amelia last week very politely, and not at all in an over-excited way, if I could stay with them this weekend she told me she had her parents friend already staying (hello comfy sofa bed for Manda!) and they’d booked tickets to Battle Prom at Blenheim Palace for the Saturday night. I said that’s fine & I’ll just chill out at your new cottage while you’re out as I couldn’t really afford to go…. but sneaky minx Amelia bought me a ticket didn’t she! So I’ll be rocking up in my ‘Vauxhall Astra or similar’ car late Saturday afternoon and joining them for a nice stroll up the road to Blenheim Palace where there will be some such Battle Prom as well as wine and a picnic (c/o Amazing Amelia!). Not entirely sure what a Battle Prom is but Amelia says its on par with ‘Sparks in the Park’ back home but on a much larger scale… but to be honest after the word WINE and PICNIC were mentioned everything else she said kinda went blurry haha.

Then, after a lovely night drinking wine and having a picnic in a palace, we will take a drive into Oxford for NANDOS lunch the next day! OMG totally can’t wait for this part – going from having Nandos almost every week back home in New Zealand to only having had it TWICE in the aforementioned time in the UK has left me feeling rather deprived. I had it first with Amelia and Mike a day after I arrived in the UK back in February.. and then I went with my Auntie at the one in the massive Metro Centre shopping mall here in Newcastle… alas it has evaded me ever since!

Also, my brother John and his girlfriend Hayley are arriving into Heathrow Sunday August 2nd and will be having a couple days in London with our cousins then driving up here to Newcastle. I’ve taken the Thursday, Friday and following Monday off to spend with them and I can’t wait!  Then they leave on the 19th August but Mum and Vicky are here for another month after that.

I’m hoping overall after they’ve all gone home we will have had the chance to visit:

• Edinburgh
• York (checking it out on my way down this Saturday too though) 
• Liverpool (as a possible new home for me before Xmas
• Durham (I’ve driven through in pouring rain [see older post re: stretch hummers etc] but never stopped to have a look)

Oh well… this will more than likely be my last update before the Kiwi’s invade but I’ll try and post stuff while they’re here because if I leave it til they’ve gone I won’t remember what was done/said! [Memory like a fish]

Take care guys and gals,

Manda xxx