MMmmmm a smoothie. I do like smoothies.

Yes that's right. That was my smoothie, and I made it with my new....Blender! Mmmmmmm...

I was at Sylvie's (my Dad's cousin) house in last weekend to visit and she got a blender for Christmas so we had smoothies for breakfast and I decided I needed to get a blender. They were pretty cheap at the grocery store I go to so I figured it would be a good investment for the remainder of the year. I was so mad though because the first time I brought the blender home it didn't work, so I had to go all the way back to ASDA (have to take the bus) to exchange it. Oh well, I have one that works now and that's all that matters.

So yeah, last weekend I went to visit family. I left Leeds on Wednesday and was supposed to get the 10 o'clock bus to London but there was traffic and construction on Otley Road so the city bus I was taking to the bus station didn't get there in time so I missed the bus. Luckily they let me get on the 11 o'clock. Then when I got to London I was supposed to meet my Nan's sister, June, at the bus stop. But apparently I got off at the wrong stop no thanks to a lady on the bus who told me where to get off...so I was walking around with all my bags for about half an hour before I finally found June. That night we didn't really do much. Frankly I was too tired to go out anyway. And there isn't really a whole lot to do after dark for just me and June because I'm not gonna go out by myself and I think it would be a little weird taking June to a club or something. So we just stayed in a chatted and watched soaps....yeppers, Coronation St. and Emmerdale, which I'm pretty sure they show on the CBC. I'd never seen them before really but I'm still not hooked on them. Oh and we watched Celebrity Big Brother...and Dennis Rodman is on it! Why? Why? And you know that song "You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby right round round round..." by Dead or Alive? Well the singer from that group, Pete Burns, is on Celebrity Big Brother and he looks like this! AAAaaahh! Scary!

On Thursday we went to Windsor, cuz I wanted to see the castle.
When we got there they were doing the changing of the guard, so that was good timing. But, when we got to the castle they told us that the State Apartments (which is essentially the main reason to see the castle) were being cleaned and we could only go into the Royal Doll Room and the Chapel for half price. So I decided not to go in cuz I figured I'd just come back and see the castle some other time and then I would see the Chapel, etc. at the same time. So the rest of the afternoon we walked around and looked at the shops, then we took a walk down by Eton College (where Princes Will and Harry went to school). Ooh and check out this crooked tea house! It's crazy!
The next day we went shopping on Oxford St. for a bit because I needed a new jacket. I had this coat from H&M (Steph if you're reading this, it's the one I bought when you were there) that ripped...and it didn't even rip on the seam, it was like, in the middle of the fabric...so I was sad because I liked that jacket. But I was trying to put it on over top of a thick sweater and apparently the coat wasn't made to accommodate big sweaters...oh well. Then we went to the Science Museum, which was alright. Most of the interactive stuff was in areas that were being renovated so a lot of the stuff we saw was more like the history of science...that's the problem with sight-seeing in the off-season: everything's closed for repairs or cleaning or whatever.

Friday evening I went to Tring to see Sylvie and Mark and Sylvie cooked a really nice meal! On Saturday we went to Oxford, which is a beautiful city. Every building downtown is nice to look at...so naturally, I took lots of pictures. Now, for anyone who's into Harry Potter, you probably know that the Great Hall in the movies are based on the Great Hall at Christ Church College, so I went there and I mean, I wouldn't object to living in these halls! But the Great Hall isn't only connected to Harry Potter...the windows and fireplace, among other things, are attributed to Alice in Wonderland. In the stained glass windows there are small pictures of the characters. They had a really nice chapel and...just everything looked nice. We went to Trinity College too, which was also really pretty. At the end of the day we went up the tower of St. Mary's church and the tower dates back to the 13th century! The staircase is seriously a foot and a half wide and spirals to the top. And this staircase is the only one so imagine trying to get people up and down at the same time. Obviously there wasn't enough room for 2 people on a step so they had little grooves where the windows were that you had to stand in to let people pass by. Now, I'm not usually claustrophobic, but going up there were a couple of times when I could feel my breath kind of getting shorter. Then, when you get to the top, there's about the same amount of room all around the tower, but it was a great view!The next day we went to Woburn Abbey and St. Alban's. But, when we got to Woburn Abbey, the estate house wasn't open, even though it said it would be in my Frommer's book. Boo Frommer's. So that sucked. We could still walk around the grounds and stuff but the house was supposed to be really nice. So then we drove to St. Alban's to the see the old cathedral.

So yeah, I left for home from the St. Alban's station. It was a good weekend though...good to chill out a bit before school started again.