Bath, Stonehenge, Professor Slughorn's house, Arctic Monkeys and Sheffield

Weather update: Cold. Frosty. No signs of snow as of yet. New jumpers, coats, beanies, scarves and gloves have been purchased.

I guess I'll start by giving an update on life in Brighton…
  

I ate a cupcake

Laura ate a cupcake

The Royal Pavilion is looking lovely with it's Christmassy lights and ice skating rink

Sadly, my hairbrush broke. That's the last time I buy a product just because it's name is similar to my own (Lady Jayne). My last hairbrush was Woolies brand and lasted for five years!

I bought some reindeer socks. Yes it was worth the money, stop judging me?

Uni has been pretty hectic of late, and I haven't had a chance to do much other than sit at my desk, book in hand, with Microsoft Word open in front of me. Having to do an additional 1000 words for all my essays instead of exams seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm not so sure!

But this past weekend I was lucky.

Last Friday afternoon, Anna and I trudged to the train station with our luggage excited to head off to Bath. Okay, Anna didn't trudge, she glided with the grace of a gazelle, whilst I (the one who can't pack) waddled the entire way there.

The train journey was long, and tiring. We arrived at about 6pm, which means we couldn't really do anything on Friday evening except eat Nando's because it's dark at about 4:30pm at the moment. Oh yes, I did have a small oopsie moment when I left my train ticket on the train, because it's paper and I don't care for paper! I'm still not used to paper tickets - I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be longing for my myki? The man at the station was very nice about it, but thought it an opportune moment to lecture me about why I should always carry my ticket it in my hand all the time. Never put it down. Because he's never lost anything and he always carries his passport in his hand (surely that's stupid?) Yeah yeah mate, I didn't leave it on the train because I thought it was a good thing to do, I did it because I'm a sleep-deprived scatter-brain who was in a state of panic about the lack of 3G!

We stayed at a really cute guest house which was about a five minute walk from the city centre. It was great except for some reason the shower had to be started by pulling a string (like a light) and the water pressure was terrible. But enough complaints from me!

Bath is beautiful. We spent Saturday doing a lot of walking (it was freezing!) We visited the Roman Baths which were really great. Then we walked to the Jane Austen Centre, which was not a totally easy feat because I'd forgotten that you can't use your phone whilst wearing gloves. But I needed my phone, and I needed my gloves. Once there, we heard a talk about Austen's family life blah blah. The cake! A lot of cake! And a lot of tea. Quite heavenly to begin with, but totally sickening towards the end. Austen-devotee Anna said, 'I feel like a pilgrim in a holy place!' Then we walked to the Royal Crescent, which was quite impressive! At this point, after all the cake, I felt like waddling sack of lard - but life goes on! Luckily we walked some more (we kept telling ourselves that we were burning off all the calories we gained with the cake), shopping and then onto the Holburne Museum of Art (very nice), and then back to the city centre for some more eating (I wasn't ready to eat yet, but you know…shit happens). We went to the famous Sally Lunn's for dinner. Now, I've heard a lot about these buns (first on the internet, and then on the GBBO no less), and yes, whilst they were delicious, I don't really understand how they're different from a normal bun? Other than the fact that it was about the size of my head.

Zee river. The bridge in the distance has all sort of shops on it and was based on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (which I will hopefully visit someday) 

A very exciting street

Sally Lunn's (I had to take it from this angle because there was some not very attractive construction work going on next door)

Outside the Roman Baths

Self-explanatory

The Abbey 

Roman mosaic

A Roman guy. He's not looking too well

Anna looking happy

Here I am trying not to look cold

Zee bath

Some rich person threw a £20 note into one of the baths. Yes, I did try my best to get it 

Artistic

Another bath or something

Pretty street

Pretty house

No idea

So much style in one photo

I feel sick just looking at this now

'Tea with Mr Darcy.' Pre-eating. When I was still excited

I think we all know what this is

Part of the Royal Crescent

Another part - I wish I had one of those awesome panoramic cameras

Normally this would be a wonderful sight - but not after having 'tea with Mr Darcy'

Zee river again 

An old favourite

Cinnamon butter - no I did not eat it myself

The following day we went on a tour to Stonehenge and the cutesy village of Lacock. Stonehenge - so full of mystery, intrigue, history, pre-history even! Yes, yes. But all I can see when I look at it is a pile of rocks. Many would say to me, 'but Meagan, you LOVE history? Why can't you care more?' I don't know,  if I go too far beyond Medieval History I'm lost. If some people aren't dying in a horrible, bloody battle, or the King isn't angry with the Pope, or someone's not making a great speech, I don't want to know. Regardless of everything I've just said it's a great thing to tick off the list, and it's always nice to get some photos of such an iconic site.

Lacock was very sweet. There was some axe-wielding maniac nice man, who told us a story about how he is the grandson of the most famous Englishman of all time, and then went on about WWII and the Nazis. You guessed it. Apparently he was the grandson of Winston Churchill. Not sure why I'm saying 'was' - he's not dead yet, as far as I know. I'm quite cynical about things like this, so I was quite dubious - Anna on the other hand was in a state of awe and amazement.

They also used Lacock as the setting for Meriton in Pride and Prejudice, and Professor Slughorn's home in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (you know, where he disguises himself as an armchair).

Very old rocks

Happy Anna

Once again trying not to look cold

QI said Stonehenge isn't actually a henge. See here. 

More Stonehenge not a henge-i-ness.

Cutesy shop in Lacock

Old and new

More adorableness

A church

A truly terrible photo of Professor Slughorn's house 

After our tour we bid farewell to Bath, and embarked one hell of a sleepy train ride home.

But the fun was not to stop there. On Monday morning, Laura, James and I got up too early once again and went to Sheffield to see Arctic Monkeys (for real this time!).

Arctic Monkeys were great of course. Unfortunately, after the great-ticket-buying-stress of June 2013, we ended up quite far back (not blaming you Laura). But hey, the sound was great! We had plenty of room to show off our moves to the adoring spectators (who were so amazed they stopped caring about Arctic Monkeys and just stood there in sheer amazement). But yes, we could make out the tiny dancing dot which was Alex Turner and the speck of fuzz which was Tom Rowley's beard.

I didn't take any photos last time I was in Sheffield, and instead relied on Wikipedia photos, but this time I endeavoured to take photos of the sights which I stole from wiki before.

Pre-Arctic Monkeys. Wow! I can see everything from here! Everything except the stage

Pensive Meagan at Sheffield Town Hall

Pensive-Laura at Sheffield Town Hall

And again...

And again...

Pensive-Laura at Sheffield City Hall

Pensive(somewhat mighty if I do say so myself)-Meagan at Sheffield City Hall

More pensiveness

L'Oreal, because you're worth it!

Sheffield City Hall

Yep

Umm yep

This is the spot where we saw Dead Sons last time! Unfortunately, no sightings this time

And this is where we saw the bitch-fight last time - wonderful memories

This rings a bell?

Oh yes that's right

A street or something

Nice photography there Meagan

Some beautiful sign work

The famous straw stolen from Burger King - adrenalin rush, obviously

And sadly work on the train

So yes, I had a great time in both Sheffield and Bath. Coming home on Tuesday evening was quite depressing. From the high highs of Arctic Monkeys to the low lows of essay writing.

But it's not long until the semester is over, and I get to do more travelling.