Spring has sprung

April-May 2016 

We've had a relatively relaxed Spring since coming back from Budapest. First we had a weekend trip to Dublin. It was relaxing and good to see the Lonergan side of the family again - and to meet some of them for the first time! Mary was very welcoming and let us stay with her, and we had many cups of Barry's tea as we caught up - and I managed to get a few Guinesses in while in Dublin as well!

The house rules of the Merry Ploughboy, a pub we went to in the south of Dublin.

We worked our way through a tasty Easter care package from back home. 

We went to the filming of the John Bishop in Conversation with... show, with the guest as Freddie (Andrew) Flintoff.

We also managed to see a bit more of the West End. The Book of Mormon was first up, really funny and pushing the envelope. We also got tickets to see the filming of the season finale of Live at the Palladium - which I thought was ok but Rachel seemed to really enjoy (Simply Red performed...). And finally we saw Guys and Dolls - which I was very sceptical about going in to, but I really enjoyed. The definite highlight was the "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" song - the singer's voice reminded me of our trip to Galway a couple of years ago, when a man singing acapella made the crowded pub fall silent and gave me goosebumps.

The campaign on the EU referendum on a Brexit has been going on - both sides making outrageous claims and behaving like groups of infighting children, though the Leave groups are far worse at this than the Remain groups. We've both made up our minds on how to vote so the campaign is just annoying and omnipresent. I'm actually quite keen to vote in the referendum in June though, as well as in the London mayoral election in a couple of days' time (5 May).

We celebrated a year of living in London with a pint or two at the local pub, the Whippet Inn, after work.

We've also been enjoying the spring weather - getting out to a few markets, incuding the Broadway markets where we had some terrible dumplings (not pictured) and some really good ones (pictured), as well as some bright and tasty meringues.

We're now getting longer, sunny days which we've started to make the most of - visiting the Columbia Road flower markets, a rooftop bar and having fish and chips in Queens Park one sunny Sunday. Spring weather hasn't all been nice though - a few days before that we actually got snow twice in one afternoon, in late April!

And as well as longer days, spring has brought some really nice sunsets. 

We explored a little of Epping Forest, a forest famous among other things for the people murdered and/or whose bodies were hidden there*. The Wikipedia page actually has an entire section called "crime" that begins "The forest has long standing criminal associations." It's nice enough, but nothing on a good native forest back home.

Spot the airborne stick!

Les escargots sont tres grandes maintenant - and nearing eating age.  

And to finish, we have an acrobatic hamster - he escaped from his cage at 2am, fell over a metre from the top into a large paper shopping bag, then ran around in circles in a panic when he couldn't escape, waking us (Rach) up with his loud rustling.

Well, that's it for now. As I write, Carol will be landing tomorrow, kicking off our early summer holidays with her trip around Blighty with Rach, before our canal trip on the Canal du Midi in southern France when Tony arrives.

Bring on Summer! 

*Side Rach note: Mike only thought to mention this to me AFTER we got slightly disorientated in a dark, thicket of the woods.