So I've been fairly remiss in my blog updates! I should be saying that it's because I've been busy writing a term paper (yes, I have a paper due in the middle of summer....yay grad school), alas it's mainly due to being quite 'knackered' as they say at the end of the day. Enjoying the UK life kept Ben and I quite busy last weekend.
Thursday night we lucked out with the weather and were able to see Twelfth Night preformed outdoors in Regent's Park. The evening turned cool and we were quite jealous of the seasoned theatre goers in front of us that had brought blankets with them but we managed to still enjoy ourselves (I think the cider helped!). Shakespeare with real English accents...nothing quite like it. The play was set in the 1940s though a disco ball did make an appearance at one point. All in all, the play was excellent, the setting wonderful and the rain didn't pour!
Regent's Park
Friday found us heading out to Bath for the weekend. We took the Bizarre Bath Walking tour which was basically some comedy and magic with little historical (or at least accurate historical) perspective and was great fun. Saturday we were booked on a tour to finally get Ben to Stonehenge. We managed to arrive at the site well before the majority of the crowds hit but by the time we left there were huge lines snaking down into the parking lot from huge tour buses (we had 16 in our van). The Hedge was windswept, distant and still as mysterious as ever.
Me and the Henge
From there we headed over the Avebury, though on the way we were treated to some views of some of the famous Wiltshire White Horses. These figures were carved into the hillside a few hundred years ago though I believe there is one that was initially carved a couple thousand years ago. The horses show up white as the soil underneath is white chalk.
Wiltshire white horse
We also had the luck of spotting a crop circle at the edge of a field, though we were at an angle that made it difficult to see the exact design.
Crop cirle
Avebury is the largest stone circle in England. Of course they still don't know exactly why it was built or it's purpose but it really is amazing to think of the work that went into carting these huge stones into place. There were a few more people wandering around then when I was there last with my mom; I suppose visiting the stones in the evening has it's perks. Sheep grazed freely among most of the stones and they were, as yet, not as protected as Stonehenge and you can walk right up them and wonder at their existence.
From Avebury, we drove to the little village of Lacock for lunch. Lacock was a film site for some of Pride and Prejudice (of Colin Firth in a wet tshirt contest fame) and apparently was used as Hogsmeade village in the next Harry Potter film as well as having the house used as HP's parents house in one of the first films. According to one local, HP saved this Muggle village.
Thursday night we lucked out with the weather and were able to see Twelfth Night preformed outdoors in Regent's Park. The evening turned cool and we were quite jealous of the seasoned theatre goers in front of us that had brought blankets with them but we managed to still enjoy ourselves (I think the cider helped!). Shakespeare with real English accents...nothing quite like it. The play was set in the 1940s though a disco ball did make an appearance at one point. All in all, the play was excellent, the setting wonderful and the rain didn't pour!
Regent's Park
Friday found us heading out to Bath for the weekend. We took the Bizarre Bath Walking tour which was basically some comedy and magic with little historical (or at least accurate historical) perspective and was great fun. Saturday we were booked on a tour to finally get Ben to Stonehenge. We managed to arrive at the site well before the majority of the crowds hit but by the time we left there were huge lines snaking down into the parking lot from huge tour buses (we had 16 in our van). The Hedge was windswept, distant and still as mysterious as ever.
Me and the Henge
From there we headed over the Avebury, though on the way we were treated to some views of some of the famous Wiltshire White Horses. These figures were carved into the hillside a few hundred years ago though I believe there is one that was initially carved a couple thousand years ago. The horses show up white as the soil underneath is white chalk.
Wiltshire white horse
We also had the luck of spotting a crop circle at the edge of a field, though we were at an angle that made it difficult to see the exact design.
Crop cirle
Avebury is the largest stone circle in England. Of course they still don't know exactly why it was built or it's purpose but it really is amazing to think of the work that went into carting these huge stones into place. There were a few more people wandering around then when I was there last with my mom; I suppose visiting the stones in the evening has it's perks. Sheep grazed freely among most of the stones and they were, as yet, not as protected as Stonehenge and you can walk right up them and wonder at their existence.
From Avebury, we drove to the little village of Lacock for lunch. Lacock was a film site for some of Pride and Prejudice (of Colin Firth in a wet tshirt contest fame) and apparently was used as Hogsmeade village in the next Harry Potter film as well as having the house used as HP's parents house in one of the first films. According to one local, HP saved this Muggle village.
We ended our tour in Castle Coumbe, a little Cotswald village that really retained that small English village feel.
On our return to Bath that evening, Ben and I decided to take Bath at it's name and go take a soak in the Thermae Spa. I think we were both a little disappointed in the temperature as it was touted as using water from the natural thermal springs, but it was still very relaxing though I think we enjoyed the steam room the best. 4 different rooms each with their own aromatherapy: lavender, frankincense, mint, and mint & eculyptus. I was surprised that the smells weren't too overpowering and it was definitately interesting to be sweating but everytime you breathed in your lungs felt cold from the mint or eculyptus.
Sunday was spent wandering Bath and touring the Roman Baths. It was really easy to imagine such a communal, relaxing place and except for the algae growing in the water it was very tempting not to want to jump in and soak for awhile.
Roman Baths with Abby in background
Unfortunately, Monday morning found me with a bit of the food poisoning...no more kebabs for me! Nothing to make you feel homesick when you're left all alone in a big house with no one to rent you videos, get your juice or help you up the stairs. Luckily Tuesday I felt better and was able to get to clinic. Of course I missed the interesting patients on Monday!!
Fortunately, I only need 3 more cases to meet my minimum. Next Tuesday and Thursday are choc-a-bloc full of patients...I think I might be scheduled to counsel most of them! For our last patient of today my supervisor and I had a little good counselor/bad counselor action going on though my supervisor kept the bad counselor in her head, though I think she wanted to strangle our patient and was very content to let me counsel her.
Needless to say, for the all the future pregnant women reading...do not get more than one screening test! And if you do, don't come running to your local genetic counselor saying "Explain why these results are so different! And now which one should I believe???" because basically why she'll sit with you and try to help you understand and help you make the next step really what she's thinking in her head is "You ninny! Now you've only made it harder for yourself!" and possibly wants to smack you in the head with your stack of results...
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