Swansea and Bristol

So, we hired a car from Heathrow and drove to Swansea to Penri's mum's house. We unloaded the car of all our cases and then the three of us (me, Penri and Laura) went to the supermarket. I needed to buy an adaptor for my laptop (as it has an Indian plug). Penri and I were a bit overwhelmed ... I think we'd forgotten what a real supermarket looked like. It was HUGE and CLEAN and sold everything you could ever want. Laura told me afterwards that she will never forget our faces - I guess the best way to relate it is 'It's like seeing snow for the first time - you can't quite believe your eyes'.

On Sunday we were up early (ish) and went around all of Penri's family that live in Swansea starting with Penri's dad. From there we went to Mam and Dats (we caught up with Penri's Aunty Eiry and Uncle Tony at the same time) and also spoke to his Aunty Delyth on the phone; finally we went to visit Val. It was really nice seeing the family again - it makes you realise even more how much you miss them when you're away. Hopefully it won't be too long before we're back again.

On Monday morning we woke up early (again) and had some breakfast before setting off to Bristol. The first place we went to was our house. It was very strange being back and knowing that we weren't staying and even stranger that someone else was living in our house! Once we'd caught up with neighbours (our neighbours, not the TV show) we headed into the centre of Bristol to sort out a few things (Estate Agents and banks etc). By late afternoon we were shattered and went to check into the hotel we were staying at. It is called Jury's Hotel and is right on the water front in the centre of Bristol (see picture below). It was very nice - seemed very posh! They even had a white baby grand piano in the bar area (which my fingers were itching to play but there were too many people about)!

















Later in the evening I caught up with Sarah (a friend from the school I used to teach at), which was lovely. We finished off a nice day with kebab and chips (which to a lot of people is nothing special but for us ... we haven't had a kebab for nearly a year and it used to be a weekly meal for us when we lived in UK)!

On Tuesday morning Penri was working in Bristol so he dropped me off outside the Axa Centre where my friend Jackie picked me up. I spent the morning with her catching up over tea and cream cakes and then we went to Cribbs Causeway Shopping Mall at 11.45 so I could meet up with some students from my old school. It was so good seeing all my Bristol friends again and I must admit, it did make me feel a little sad knowing that I was only there for such a short time.