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hathycolWe spent our first morning of 'minimoon' swapping memories to try and make sure as many as possible stayed instilled, in between wishing it was time for breakfast and being glad we'd remembered to put out the room service card to not have to venture downstairs. We were both hungover but bone-shatteringly tired from the long, long few days we'd had. The advantage of being in a suite meant that we opened some of the cards we'd come back with with a beautiful view over the Old Course and got to eat breakfast in our pajamas on a proper table. It was possibly the best thing I've ever eaten IN MY LIFE, although we did order far too much food. (The joys of drunken room service.)
After a shaky more few hours, we managed to update our names and status on facebook (the joys of modern life!) and had to head out to see of Richie's mum and to pick up all the stuff we left behind in the reception venue. We found ourselves sitting in the sun in the quad deflating a Dalek, a surprisingly peaceful experience.
The rest of the afternoon is, I must admit, a little hazy, although I had what may have been the BEST NAP EVER before we headed down for an official posh dinner. It was so posh, in fact, that we had a very awkward moment when I had to ask for the vegetarian option. My meal ended up being absolutely delicious, so no complaints here, but it's always an awkward moment when I realise that there isn't anything I can eat on a menu. I'm not vegetarian, that's the worst part; I just don't like most food that contains meat, so it's easiest to eat that option, but there was literally nothing. It was SUPER AWKWARD. Still, never realised cauliflower risotto could be so delicious.
The next day was slightly more overcast, but we lugged all of our stuff into the car and trundled up to see our parents off. My mum looked deeply unimpressed at the moment of stuff we were asking her to take home, and we were all surprised by the random bromance which seems to have sprung up between Richie's oldest brother and my sister's boyfriend. Richie and I went to go and give in our wedding schedule, and to do a few other bits and bobs. We came back to the car to discover my parents still stood by the car, which had refused to start. Oh dear. Turned out Dad had flooded the engine. We found this out days later. Ah well!
Our Posh Bit Of Minimoon bit was in a hotel in Guisborough, where we managed to snag a four-poster bed room as a bargain rate. I assumed it would take about three hours to get to North Yorkshire, which shows the lack of preparation I have thus far put into anything of post-married life. Many hours of the A1 later, we decided to go to Berwick upon Tweed for lunch because, well, why not. After lunch we decided we probably wouldn't go to Berwick upon Tweed again, and headed off into the deepest depths of Yorkshire. We eventually found the hotel with my SatNav, astonishingly, not getting us lost.
The hotel was beautiful. It was an old country house converted to be a hotel, but it pulled off the trick of still looking like an old country house. Our room was called the 'Lady Gisborough Room' and it was very us – beautifully comfortable, with a gorgeous bed and big bathroom, as well as a comfy sofa and a table and chairs, without seeming cluttered. Also, there was a book about dinosaurs on the coffee table. No complaint here!
We spent the first night in the hotel itself, having a half bottle of champagne (we got so much champagne at the wedding, we're still getting through it) on the comfy sofa, before going downstairs eating in the 'casual' restaurant, having delicious food (well, my main course was a bit iffy, but that's by the by) and drinking delicious wine. Yes, it was a boozy week, why are any of you surprised?
The next day heralded another room service breakfast, before logging on to Facebook with the free wireless and checking our photos. YEAH WE'RE COOL. We had agreed in advance to our minimoon to try and maintain radio silence, but it was very hard not too! (Also a total treat to get home on the Saturday night and check everything properly, but such is the nature of modern life.) We then spent the day exploring the local area; after investigating the hotel grounds very thoroughly, and very nearly stumbling onto what turned out to be active beehives, we decided to try and be a bit more brave. We knew that Guisborough had an ruined priory, so decided to find it. “We'll walk,” I declared. “But let's check with reception that we're dressed properly.”
We felt very much in the middle of nowhere at the hotel, you see; we had spent some of the previous evening watching some sheep be herded with a dog. The receptionist gave us some instructions, and within about five minutes we had found the priory itself. Turns out that right behind the priory was Guisborough itself, a surprisingly pretty market town. I think it probably helped that the sunshine was beating down and it was pleasantly warm. We were aiming for a beer garden but instead had an ice cream on a park bench and watched the world go by.
We did end up heading back to the hotel, and had a drink sat in an ornate lounge, with bookcases and a piano. The waitress who served us had served us the night before, and had bought breakfast up. “Do they let you sleep?” I found myself saying.
She laughed. “Yeah, eventually.” (I'm not good with people giving me really, really good service. I'm used to, well, Primark, and lord knows I'm terrible at it myself due to indifference and lack of good pay. She was ace, though.)
That evening, we had booked The Posh Restaurant, which I was really excited about in advance but in the end felt a little let down. It was worryingly quiet, and although the food was nice, I think I was beginning to crave some boring food. Beans, mostly. And mashed potatoes. Ballantine of chicken was just confusing. Man, though, the chocolate fondant? omfg.
We had to check out the next day, which was very sad indeed. I have never stayed in such a nice hotel before, but I hope to again, ideally with another four poster bed that's so deliciously comfortable! We headed back to Lancashire with my SatNav reverting to type and trying to kill me, although eventually taking me over the Pennines on a lovely route that at least let Richie see some of the surrounding areas. (I was mostly braking a lot, and swearing at hills.)
Wednesday night was a night back in Southport, opening some of the wedding presents that Dad had kindly dropped off for us and then getting into our pajamas and ordering pizza based on the cheapest menu that came through the door. After all the luxury, it was wonderful.
Thursday was a surprise day to me, as I knew we were going to Chester but I didn't know Richie had booked a hotel! We took the train to Chester in what was again a beautiful day, and after a classy Wetherspoons lunch (LOOK IT'S A DECENT DRINKS SELECTION WITH CHEAP FOOD) we threw our stuff in the hotel and went to explore Chester, walking around the city walls in an attempt to try and see as much of the city as possible in the quickest way. There was an artist displaying his work along the walls, so we stopped for a quick glance. Something caught my eye.
“Richie,” I said, very seriously, “there is a Dalek in this picture.”
There were Daleks in nearly all of the pictures, drawn in amongst leafy Chester landscapes. Some of them had Cybermen in, too. We chatted to the artist, and he said that he'd just drawn in a Dalek once in the eighties and it had sort of taken off a bit. Needless to say, we are now the proud owners of a picture of Chester walls with Daleks taking in the sights. It's framed and even up on the wall and everything. It seemed, really, the perfect souvenir!
As the weather cooled down a little, we took in a trendy Chester bar (apparently down Chester's most romantic street, which again seemed appropriate) before heading back to the hotel to dress for dinner. As it were.
We had yet another half-bottle of champagne that night before food, which was sadly not that awesome. Oh well. (The champagne was awesome, I hasten to point out. I am getting A Taste for champagne, which is possibly worrying. Times I have had champagne in my life: a glass when I passed my A-Levels, and then nothing until my hen do. Post wedding, I have had loads and we still have two bottles at home to play after necking two when we opened our wedding presents from John Lewis. This, I suspect, is not a habit I can afford.)
The next day we went to CHESTER ZOO which deserves all of its capital letters. Many people celebrated my wedding by going to see the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo, something Richie and I were unable to do. However, we had a full day at Chester Zoo which was officially EXCITING. I'm bad at explaining animals, but there were baby elephants HAVING A BATH which took up a good twenty minutes of wonderful viewing, and penguins, and ORANGUTANS. I love orangutans, and there were baby ones there as well. And porcupines! I've never seen one of them before! It was, basically, a lovely day in the sunshine. We must have walked miles and miles, though, we practically fell into the flat when we got back.
And that was in our minimoon, such as it was. We spent Saturday having a posh picnic in Hesketh Park, sneaking a bottle of red wine in and having antipasto and nice bread, before lying on a blanket under a beautifully warm sun. We even found a spot where we could mostly ignore the general public and kids going past, but still watch the birds on the pond. It was a lovely day, particularly as we don't get a lot of outdoor space at the best of times. By Sunday, Richie was back at work, and I was back on Monday.
We're going to have the Big Honeymoon in the first two weeks of September. My bonus at work has come through, so we've already paid the small amount of the wedding debt off, and have a little to start saving towards the honeymoon. We're going to get a train around France, Germany and Austria, before looping back to Berlin and then flying home. It's very us, and I'm very excited, not least because I'll start having something to plan again! But for now, it's back to work and real life, albeit one with a lot of nice new stuff, some shiny rings, and an awful lot of inlaws.
After a shaky more few hours, we managed to update our names and status on facebook (the joys of modern life!) and had to head out to see of Richie's mum and to pick up all the stuff we left behind in the reception venue. We found ourselves sitting in the sun in the quad deflating a Dalek, a surprisingly peaceful experience.
The rest of the afternoon is, I must admit, a little hazy, although I had what may have been the BEST NAP EVER before we headed down for an official posh dinner. It was so posh, in fact, that we had a very awkward moment when I had to ask for the vegetarian option. My meal ended up being absolutely delicious, so no complaints here, but it's always an awkward moment when I realise that there isn't anything I can eat on a menu. I'm not vegetarian, that's the worst part; I just don't like most food that contains meat, so it's easiest to eat that option, but there was literally nothing. It was SUPER AWKWARD. Still, never realised cauliflower risotto could be so delicious.
The next day was slightly more overcast, but we lugged all of our stuff into the car and trundled up to see our parents off. My mum looked deeply unimpressed at the moment of stuff we were asking her to take home, and we were all surprised by the random bromance which seems to have sprung up between Richie's oldest brother and my sister's boyfriend. Richie and I went to go and give in our wedding schedule, and to do a few other bits and bobs. We came back to the car to discover my parents still stood by the car, which had refused to start. Oh dear. Turned out Dad had flooded the engine. We found this out days later. Ah well!
Our Posh Bit Of Minimoon bit was in a hotel in Guisborough, where we managed to snag a four-poster bed room as a bargain rate. I assumed it would take about three hours to get to North Yorkshire, which shows the lack of preparation I have thus far put into anything of post-married life. Many hours of the A1 later, we decided to go to Berwick upon Tweed for lunch because, well, why not. After lunch we decided we probably wouldn't go to Berwick upon Tweed again, and headed off into the deepest depths of Yorkshire. We eventually found the hotel with my SatNav, astonishingly, not getting us lost.
The hotel was beautiful. It was an old country house converted to be a hotel, but it pulled off the trick of still looking like an old country house. Our room was called the 'Lady Gisborough Room' and it was very us – beautifully comfortable, with a gorgeous bed and big bathroom, as well as a comfy sofa and a table and chairs, without seeming cluttered. Also, there was a book about dinosaurs on the coffee table. No complaint here!
We spent the first night in the hotel itself, having a half bottle of champagne (we got so much champagne at the wedding, we're still getting through it) on the comfy sofa, before going downstairs eating in the 'casual' restaurant, having delicious food (well, my main course was a bit iffy, but that's by the by) and drinking delicious wine. Yes, it was a boozy week, why are any of you surprised?
The next day heralded another room service breakfast, before logging on to Facebook with the free wireless and checking our photos. YEAH WE'RE COOL. We had agreed in advance to our minimoon to try and maintain radio silence, but it was very hard not too! (Also a total treat to get home on the Saturday night and check everything properly, but such is the nature of modern life.) We then spent the day exploring the local area; after investigating the hotel grounds very thoroughly, and very nearly stumbling onto what turned out to be active beehives, we decided to try and be a bit more brave. We knew that Guisborough had an ruined priory, so decided to find it. “We'll walk,” I declared. “But let's check with reception that we're dressed properly.”
We felt very much in the middle of nowhere at the hotel, you see; we had spent some of the previous evening watching some sheep be herded with a dog. The receptionist gave us some instructions, and within about five minutes we had found the priory itself. Turns out that right behind the priory was Guisborough itself, a surprisingly pretty market town. I think it probably helped that the sunshine was beating down and it was pleasantly warm. We were aiming for a beer garden but instead had an ice cream on a park bench and watched the world go by.
We did end up heading back to the hotel, and had a drink sat in an ornate lounge, with bookcases and a piano. The waitress who served us had served us the night before, and had bought breakfast up. “Do they let you sleep?” I found myself saying.
She laughed. “Yeah, eventually.” (I'm not good with people giving me really, really good service. I'm used to, well, Primark, and lord knows I'm terrible at it myself due to indifference and lack of good pay. She was ace, though.)
That evening, we had booked The Posh Restaurant, which I was really excited about in advance but in the end felt a little let down. It was worryingly quiet, and although the food was nice, I think I was beginning to crave some boring food. Beans, mostly. And mashed potatoes. Ballantine of chicken was just confusing. Man, though, the chocolate fondant? omfg.
We had to check out the next day, which was very sad indeed. I have never stayed in such a nice hotel before, but I hope to again, ideally with another four poster bed that's so deliciously comfortable! We headed back to Lancashire with my SatNav reverting to type and trying to kill me, although eventually taking me over the Pennines on a lovely route that at least let Richie see some of the surrounding areas. (I was mostly braking a lot, and swearing at hills.)
Wednesday night was a night back in Southport, opening some of the wedding presents that Dad had kindly dropped off for us and then getting into our pajamas and ordering pizza based on the cheapest menu that came through the door. After all the luxury, it was wonderful.
Thursday was a surprise day to me, as I knew we were going to Chester but I didn't know Richie had booked a hotel! We took the train to Chester in what was again a beautiful day, and after a classy Wetherspoons lunch (LOOK IT'S A DECENT DRINKS SELECTION WITH CHEAP FOOD) we threw our stuff in the hotel and went to explore Chester, walking around the city walls in an attempt to try and see as much of the city as possible in the quickest way. There was an artist displaying his work along the walls, so we stopped for a quick glance. Something caught my eye.
“Richie,” I said, very seriously, “there is a Dalek in this picture.”
There were Daleks in nearly all of the pictures, drawn in amongst leafy Chester landscapes. Some of them had Cybermen in, too. We chatted to the artist, and he said that he'd just drawn in a Dalek once in the eighties and it had sort of taken off a bit. Needless to say, we are now the proud owners of a picture of Chester walls with Daleks taking in the sights. It's framed and even up on the wall and everything. It seemed, really, the perfect souvenir!
As the weather cooled down a little, we took in a trendy Chester bar (apparently down Chester's most romantic street, which again seemed appropriate) before heading back to the hotel to dress for dinner. As it were.
We had yet another half-bottle of champagne that night before food, which was sadly not that awesome. Oh well. (The champagne was awesome, I hasten to point out. I am getting A Taste for champagne, which is possibly worrying. Times I have had champagne in my life: a glass when I passed my A-Levels, and then nothing until my hen do. Post wedding, I have had loads and we still have two bottles at home to play after necking two when we opened our wedding presents from John Lewis. This, I suspect, is not a habit I can afford.)
The next day we went to CHESTER ZOO which deserves all of its capital letters. Many people celebrated my wedding by going to see the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo, something Richie and I were unable to do. However, we had a full day at Chester Zoo which was officially EXCITING. I'm bad at explaining animals, but there were baby elephants HAVING A BATH which took up a good twenty minutes of wonderful viewing, and penguins, and ORANGUTANS. I love orangutans, and there were baby ones there as well. And porcupines! I've never seen one of them before! It was, basically, a lovely day in the sunshine. We must have walked miles and miles, though, we practically fell into the flat when we got back.
And that was in our minimoon, such as it was. We spent Saturday having a posh picnic in Hesketh Park, sneaking a bottle of red wine in and having antipasto and nice bread, before lying on a blanket under a beautifully warm sun. We even found a spot where we could mostly ignore the general public and kids going past, but still watch the birds on the pond. It was a lovely day, particularly as we don't get a lot of outdoor space at the best of times. By Sunday, Richie was back at work, and I was back on Monday.
We're going to have the Big Honeymoon in the first two weeks of September. My bonus at work has come through, so we've already paid the small amount of the wedding debt off, and have a little to start saving towards the honeymoon. We're going to get a train around France, Germany and Austria, before looping back to Berlin and then flying home. It's very us, and I'm very excited, not least because I'll start having something to plan again! But for now, it's back to work and real life, albeit one with a lot of nice new stuff, some shiny rings, and an awful lot of inlaws.
