Matt and Nicole's Visit

A bleak day at the seaside in Brighton

Drinks at the Battleaxes

  The scourge of Canada arrived on my door step last month and it took all my power to expel them from the country after two hard weeks of trying.  That's right Matt Hayes and his fabulous wife Nicole came to England!  It was actually a lot of fun to have them stay in my house and harass my cats.  (Cats opinions may differ).  We went on some great day trips, ate a lot of wild game and had more wine in the house than is usual!  We hit all of my current favourite restaurants around London and Matt cooked some "interesting" meals in my seldom used kitchen.  I have never desired to eat a pigeon or a grouse but now I have.  Borough Market didn't know what hit them!  Sell Matt Hayes a poor quality grouse will you?   They enjoyed the same thing that I enjoy when visiting a different country, the grocery store.   The meat, cheeses and wines that you get in England are quite a bit cheaper than Canada obviously it isn't such a bit deal to import them from other European countries.  I am not a bit wine drinker but I do love how cheaply you can buy french soft cheeses here.   I would suspect that they weren't all that enamoured by the English weather however which to be honest is pretty terrible.  It was cold and damp pretty much none stop.  Our first day trip was to Oxford for a little punting and shopping.  It was lovely for the first five minutes of the journey.  We ate our picnic lunch and sat under blankets at our chauffeur pushed us along the river Cherwell.   Then it absolutely poured with rain.  I was warm enough though because the chauffeur gave us the blankets at the beginning and umbrellas once the rain started.  Then we had a cream tea at one of my favourite cafes followed by a little light shopping.  Matt enjoyed discovering the world's oldest piece of bacon on display in the market place.  The following day we headed to Brighton.  It was quite cold and windy there.  Our outdoor meal of fish and chips by the sea was a bit bracing!  We retreated indoors to the Royal Pavilion which was the home of the Prince Regent and Queen Victoria.  It is an amazing building that is decorated in an Asian style.  It is completely decadent is it style and it's kitchen (a particular interest for Matt) were a marvel of their times.  We finished up the day with a pub quiz at the Three Crowns in Bushey.  We didn't do too badly, especially in the Halloween Anagrams round!  I think we will go there again on quiz night, it is a lot of fun. 


Punting in Oxford

Mack receiving some mandatory attention

On other activity that we took in a couple of times was Aldenham Country Park.  That is a petting zoo type place where you can feed a variety of animals, hold on to a guinea pig and generally ramble around.  That is where we saw this tremendous smiling goat!  Once again though, an extremely cold wind blew throughout the day and we had to retreat to the pub to warm up by the fire.


Smiling Goat

Although they took a 10 day break to Portugal, I think they enjoyed themselves.  The cats probably did enjoy it as well because people were in the house all the time giving them attention and also, the heat was on all the time which they appreciate.  It was lovely to have them here and I hope they will return again soon.