Apart from overindulging in ridiculous amounts of food and going crazy with the shopping, I visited a whole bunch of places and saw heaps of cool people.
I spent a few days in London and went to the Imperial War Museum (yet again) because I love the place
and then spent the rest of the time catching up with Gemma. We mainly shopped and gossiped, and it was fun!
After that was my trip to Brighton which was awesome.
Stayed in a flat there with Liz and due to access to a kitchen got stupidly excited in ASDA about simple things and the ability to buy everything you could ever possibly want to eat under one roof. After doing this I think I cooked twice (if you count a fry up as cooking!) and spent the rest of the time eating out. We indulged in chips on the beach which is aways a good experience, and went to the Chinese place for a feast. Also spent an afternoon in a pub in Lewes where there was good pub grub to be had. The other gastronomic delight was a feast of dubious snacks from China that I'd sent to Kyle, Mary and Liz back in February but they had been too scared (:op) to try. There was of course some more shopping to be done, and a couple of walks along the pier,
as well as lots of time spent generally just catching up with people. Shockingly there was no trip to Audio - we were unsure about the DJ playing there on the Wednesday I was in town so instead we opted instead for a trip to Digital to see what the cheap student night was like. We came to the conclusion that if it sucked we could always leave a go check out Audio but the cheap drinks plus (and I'm surprised to admit this) good fun music meant that we stayed put and had a merry old time,
topped off with a trip to the all night diner for a late night grease injection afterwards. We also went to a second night at Digital, the incredibly lame sounding shades rave
and I was not nearly as impressed by that one. Gem came down on that day so the trip to the pub beforehand was far more exciting as even smelly Mary came along and there was good company with kiwi fruit vodka. What more could you want?! After the lame shades rave Gem and Kyle stayed at the flat with us and then we got up at stupid o'clock to catch a bus to the station for an adventure in Wales.
Wales was far more sedate than Brighton but still good fun! Liz put Kyle and me up in her house, and I finally got to meet Mr Liz. He made an excellent first impression by cooking an awesome roast which was welcome after a long train ride following a night of little sleep! We went to Cardiff for the day and Kyle suggested getting a face pack so we spent one evening beautifying
and the other evenings were just rather chilled out at (Liz's) home. We also got shown the sights of Newport as well as getting lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was pretty tasty stuff and close to the real deal that I can get here.
Another weekend, another trip, this time to Birmingham to see Nina. Lots of shopping was done, as well as lots of movies watched. Of course there was a trip to the cinema, and we watched some movies at her flat too. She lives close to a canal that's been tarted up and turned into a dining and shopping place. It has a branch of the Gourmet Burger Kitchen that she took me to for some L&P (I hadn't realised this place stocked L&P otherwise I'd have been there a long time ago!) and a place that did ace breakfasts that were two for one on a Sunday so we spent a lot of time being lazy and not venturing very far from her place unless absolutely necessary.
The final weekend was filled with a trip up to Derby with the parents and the sister. We went for dinner with Dad's family at a pub (pubs featured heavily in the month or so I was home - you can't beat good pub grub!) on Saturday night and went to the cemetery to see the plaque for my grandparents. Also spent some time with Mum's family - some came to visit for a day soon after I was home,
and we went to visit my Grandfather as well as taking another trip to London to meet my uncle. Saw some truly spectacular (!) works of art at the Tate modern and walked around the place a bit. It was a really nice day - one of those days with a super blue sky and it was all very pretty - much more so than Hanoi ever is!
Also spent some time at home and went to a few places nearby like Lacock
and Avebury. Met Jen a few times to go out for dinner locally (more pubs) and did a pub quiz with her and her friends. It was nice to spend some time at home in a familiar place doing familiar things, and it was great to see people again after so long.
Was not that impressed with coming back to Hanoi and kinda wanted to stay in the U.K., but I know that the reality of staying at home would be very different to the holiday I had. For starters I spent all my money pretty much and so would be flat broke, plus I would probably have found myself in the same situation as my sister, trying desperately to find a job.
Now I'm back into the swing of things here it's not so bad. After our failed attempt at visiting the citadel in that first week back, I went back with Alison and Calder and this time we got to see it. One side is a large pit where they have found the remains of a king's old palace and it's really just a series of small walls (:op) that you can walk past on an elevated platform, and across the street on the other side is the complex with a temple or two and a bunch of random buildings that seem to now be offices. Not the most exciting of places, but apparently it recently became a UNESCO world heritage site so we thought we should check it out.
Last weekend I went to the wedding of a couple from work. The Vietnamese side of things had happened earlier in the week in Dung's hometown and the thing on Sunday night was more the British side of things for Simon's family. It started with a long time spent standing outside the venue waiting for things to start, and then there was a ceremony inside with the usual vows, also translated into Vietnamese for Dung's family, followed by the toast and a buffet meal.
The citadel and the wedding
A ton of photos from home
