Our Welsh Adventure

So, visiting London didn't exactly happen, as you can probably guess from the title .... we did however, end up visiting Wales. Once I arrived at Heathrow, I was not feeling well at all - the change in pressure from the landing had made my ears pop to an almost tear inducing extreme, plus, I was completely stuffed up ... needless to say, I really didn't feel like walking around outdoors. So, we drove home and I had a nice long nap, a shower and some tea. Meanwhile, Peter looked for a hotel for us to stay in onvernight in Cardiff, Wales. We decided it would make for a nice overnight trip since it is only a 1 and half hour drive from Amesbury. Around 2:00 we hit the road and found our way to Cardiff, or as the Welsh call it 'Caerdydd'. We learned that becuase Wales is a bilingual country, all of their road signs are in both English and Welsh ...

Once we settled into our hotel we went into downtown Cardiff, saw the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff Castle and had dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. We walked around a bit .. the streets and pubs were packed with rugby fans watching the England/Ireland match ... needless to say, they were happy when England lost (Welsh rugby fans hate the English rugby team ...) It was a nice atmosphere for sure.


On Sunday morning we left Cardiff and drove to Caerphilly to visit Caerphilly Castle ... it is one of the largest castles in Britain alongside Dover Castle, covering a 30 acre area. It was spectacular .. it had a moat, and a famous leaning south east tower that leaned at a greater angle than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is also considered to be one of the finest examples of 13th century military architecture.

From there we drove to the village of Tintern to see Tintern Abbey ... after a road 'diversion', otherwise known as a detour, we found our way there. The Abbey was amazing and everywhere we looked lended a great view of the surrounding Welsh countryside. It was hard to know which part to take a picture of!

After these two stops we headed on our way home to Amesbury ... it was a great weekend roadtrip and we're planning on taking many more! The next one we have planned is Bath - we'll keep you posted!

Team PM

Leaving on a jetplane .. pt. 3

I know, I know, the title is getting redundant - but can I help it for having to travel alot ; )

I am getting ready to head over to England again, I leave tomorrow evening and will arrive at Heathrow bright and early Saturday morning. This time it is just a week long trip due to my winter break week from school. Our initial plan was for Peter to meet me at the airport, and instead of us going home, we were going to spend Saturday in London, go see a show, and explore the sites. However, I've unfortunately caught a terrible cold and we've decided to postpone the London trip in case I don't feel up to it. If I do feel okay, we may train in on Saturday afternoon and stay overnight and then have Sunday to explore ... so it may still work out for us to see (some of) the sites of London!

The good news is that we do have internet at home now, so I will be able to regularly update the blog etc ... there is still no tv ... and its such a long and complicated story that I won't bore you - let's just say they do things 'differently' in the UK. The tv is supposed to be connected next Saturday (the day I leave to come back home) ... we'll see if that actually happens - for Peter's sake we hope it will. There is a small convenience store near our house, they sell grocery items, and have a small movie section in the back of the store. Peter has been entertaining himself by renting movies almost every night (they only cost 99p) ... unfortunately though, he's down to some pretty poor movie choices as he has rented or already seen all the good ones. He really needs the tv to come so that he isn't forced to rent really bad movies, or chick flicks to keep himself occupied ... I am bringing some DVD's from home for us to watch so that should help fill in some of the gaps until the tv is connected.

Well - I will keep you updated on what we're up to while I am away .. and since Peter has more time off now, there is sure to be some great adventures had!

Team PM

Chenonceaux

Chenonceaux
Originally uploaded by Team PM.

I am trying a little experiment ... you see, I just discovered that I could post a message to the weblog from the flickr page .. for those of you who already knew this was possible, don't mock me. And for the rest of you computer illiterate people, glad your on my side : )

Also, just to clear up some confusion ... the pictures that you see of places in Europe, such as the above Chateau in France .. or the pictures of Team PM along the right hand side of the blog page, were not taken during travels since being in England .. these are from previous trips such as our Europe trip in June 2006, and NYC in June 2005. Since it is Team PM's blog, we thought that you'd like to see lots of pictures of us on our previous 'adventures' ....

Team PM

Technical Difficulty ... now solved

It came to my attention last night, thanks to Peter's parents, that the link to our flickr photo page was not working. Well, I had a look at it and fixed the problem (there was one too many slashes following the http:) The link is now working, so view away!

Team PM

First Flight

Here is a post from Peter that he sent me to add to the blog:

I had my first flight today in the Alpha Jet. It is a subsonic ground fighter that has alot of power, but can only structurally hold 6g. The weather wasn't all that great, kinda cloudy with some rain starting to come in from Ireland. We took off and did some mid level (2000 ft) recognition of some ground navigation queues' (there's a little town, a power plant etc.) Then we went up into the pea soup at 22,000 ft. We did some perception stuff. I would close my eyes and the pilot would bank the aircraft and I would see if Icould feel it. I could feel it when he did sharp banks, but not soft ones. Then I did some banking of my own (2g 60 degree bank), t was fun. It was to the point where the g-suit was activating to make sure the blood was still going to my head. We then did some instrument approaches, some with flaps out, some with flaps in. Finally we landed for real, the flight was a little disappointing in some ways. We didn't get to do any of the aerobatics we were supposed to do (I was supposed to try my own rolls and loops), but that'll come on the next flight. Other than that one flight, its just been groundschool which goes at about 2-3 times the speed of University. Quite exhausting. Hope everyone is well and that you are making plans to come visit us. Alpha Jet specs and pics: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/alpha-jet.htm
Team PM

Home Sweet Home

Well, I am home again. It is nice to be home, to see Fletch and have all of my things around me (how materialistic of me) ... but I am mostly excited to sleep in my own bed, probably the thing I miss most when I am away.
As promised I have some pictures to share with you of our home in Amesbury, and our car, the lovely Renault Laguna in a fantastic shade of grey. Also, for those of you who forget why Peter is now living in England, there is a picture of him in his flight suit - he is actually working over there, and this is his uniform for as long as he is a Flight Test Engineer, so basically the next 6 years, or perhaps more. I also posted, and will continue to post some pictures from my/our travels while over there - these will all be posted on our flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/teampm .... so, hope you enjoy! I put a little preview in this post ...

Team PM

Stonehenge

Today I am at the Amesbury Library taking advantage of their free internet .. we have to yet to have ours connected at home....that's a story in and of itself. As I got online and went to check my email at yahoo.ca, I noticed that the front page story was about the unearthing of an ancient village near Stonehenge. How odd it is to me that as I read the article, and as I sit here in the library, Stonehenge lies about a 5 minute drive away from me ... and, I visited it just yesterday. I have gotten used to my house here in Amesbury, and my neighbourhood, and even driving on the very narrow roads ... but I have not gotten used to the fact that the grounds I live on, walk on and drive on, are so ancient and so many others have trod them before me. Stonehenge is considered to be about 5000 years old ... it is a world famous site, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the 7 (or 8, or how ever many there are now) Wonders of the World. And I've seen it, I've stood in front of it, I've taken pictures of it .... and its only a 5 minute drive from my house. You take the A303 out of Amesbury toward the southwest .. as you come over the hill, you see the stones standing there right in front of you like a bunch of ancient road markers .... odd indeed ...

That's my deep thought for the day .. now I'll go back to my emails and internet celebrity gossip : )

Team PM