The Past Month - Part I

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted!! For any of you dedicated souls out there who are still checking for updates - I really am sorry it's taken so long to post - I didn't realize!

Anyway, where to start?! I think I'll do it diary style.

June 29 - Paul and I went to see Guys and Dolls down at the Picadilly Theatre. It was great! I love going to live theatre as opposed to movies (although movies are fun too). The story was sappy, but cute and fun, and the singing and dancing was fantastic. Paul loved it too, which is good because it means he will want to go to more of them. Patrick Swayze is set to star in it starting July 10, so I plan to go again to see him.

June 30 - My friend, Shannon Larson, and her sister and neices came to stay for a few days. My little flat was FULL! We bought a blow-up mattress which is the same size as the living room floor, so after the neices went to bed, you had to climb over the sofa to get to the kitchen or bathroom!! They went off sightseeing on July 1 and decided that they didn't like London at all - too big and noisy and hot. Of course, it didn't help that it was over 30 degrees out there and humid! So, they decided to head out to Wales on the 2nd. That was Paul's birthday, so that evening Paul and I went out to the pub and then out for dinner at a local restaurant called Zizzi's. Very nice food!

July 3 - My Uncle Jac came to stay for a few days before we headed out to Greece. It was great to see him - I think it's been at least 2 years and possibly 4 since I've last seen him. I was off work from the 30th of June to the 11th of July, so Uncle Jac and I went to Harrod's, and the Tate Modern and met Paul for dinner and just had a lot of fun pratting around Chiswick and London. We left for Greece on the 6th - Paul drove us to the airport.

July 6-12 - We arrived in Crete at 11:30 at night, and then had to take a bus to the hotel, which was in a town over an hour's drive away. We were knackered by the time we got there! Checked in and crashed. The next morning, Uncle Jac was off to his conference, and I slept in and then walked down to the beach, which was only a couple of blocks away. The beach was gorgeous - considering I haven't been on a beach in ages!! I stopped for lunch in a great little cafe with a view of the ocean and had some Greek food. Good thing I love Greek food!! In the afternoon I went back to the hotel and lay by the pool for an hour or so, took a dip and headed up to shower and change for dinner. Uncle Jac had got me a ticket for the evening's beach BBQ and dance, so we went out there. It was a great club right on the beach. The food was disappointingly mediocre, but we were sitting with this hilarious group of guys and had lots of fun! Laughing, drinking wine, it was a fantastic evening! When we got back to the hotel, some of the guys came back to our room and we all sat on the patio and had another couple of drinks and talked until 3:00 in the morning!

The next day I slept in quite late while Uncle Jac went off to the conference again. In the afternoon, there was a group tour to the ruins of the Palace of Knosses, which was built in the 18th century BC. Fascinating place! I loved all the well-preserved ruins, and they had done some reconstructions so you could see what it would have looked like back then. It was so interesting! That night a group of us went out for supper at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. We just ordered a bunch of starters, and everyone ended up full. Lots of laughs and very interesting people - some of them the same as the previous night, and some different. Uncle Jac and I could only last until about 11:30ish, and we were shattered, so we headed off and let the rest of them carry on!

I'm going to stop there and finish this in another post soon, I promise!! However, here is the link to pictures from the first part of the Greece trip.

http://www.chrisinchiswick.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/Crete%20-%20Rythemno