Amy Comes to Visit!

Last week my dear friend and co-favorite college roommate, Amy, came to visit.  And we had some much needed girl time. Truth be told I'm still lacking in the girl friend department in England so I am pretty sure I talked Amy's ears off.  Yes both of them.  But luckily, seeing as she is our 12th visitor to England, I'm getting pretty damn good at this tour guiding thing.  If only the British weather would cooperate a little better.  

Here's a rundown of our week in pictures....

The first night we went for a sundown walk in the Peak District.

Picturesque, No?

Then we went to Chatsworth.  Again.  

I love Chatsworth though so thats OK.  Especially the gardens.  

They don't get old.

The of course we had to go to London.  

We stayed in a very cheap girls only hostel which I can highly recommend

 for poor female travelers called Piccadilly Guest House.

 The plan was to see the major tourist spots, but England had other ideas.  

So shortly after this was taken we headed off to Harrods where they were having a sale!  

Hurrah!

We had dinner at my favorite restaurant in all of England, Bumpkin, then we went off to the West End to see Dirty Dancing. Ohhh Johnny!  No one puts baby in the corner!

When we came back to Sheffield I took Amy for a little more English countryside action.  

I love the Peak District.  

It's God's country (according to the locals anyways.)  

I must say I agree... at least when the sun is shining.  

I made a lil picnic.

 But then we had to go home because my hair was just not cooperating.  

Forrealz.

But not before Heidi pissed off a herd of sheep.  Eeeeeeeeeek!  

Sheep are creepy sometimes.

But then we saw these cute little baby horses on the way home.  

Awwwwww.  I love country life.

And then Amy and I passed out.

Note:  While we were curled up uncomfortably on the couch Heidi was in my bed.  

Typical.  

I take this to mean I was a successful tour guide.  

ps.  I didn't include pictures of our spa day at Harrogate Turkish Baths .  (this is due to the fact that there were looooooooooads of naked ladies wandering around and taking photos would have been totally inappropriate... fyi the English are so much more comfortable than Americans with nudity.)  But besides the fact that Amy and I were somewhat uncomfortable with nudies, and we creepily checked out the more ample hair styles sported by the very self assured British ladies, we had a wonderful time at the beautiful spa and this is certainly going on the guest list itinerary.  

Miss you already, Amy!

And thanks to Mr. and Mrs. N for buying her plane tickets!  What would we do without our parents?!

14. Get Experience at a Vet Clinic

Hi Friends!

Thank you for keeping your fingers crossed for me if you have been.  It must have been difficult because they would have been crossed for a very long time!  But guess what - I finally managed to arrange some work experience at a vet clinic!

A terrible selfie of me and part of Phil watching cheetah surgery in Africa

I don't start for another month, but I am really excited as it is one of the major steps to fulfilling my career goals.  I'm hoping to make a very good impression, get nice references from it, and maybe, just maybe it will lead to something else.

My dad told me the more you do the luckier you get... 

well Dad, I'm trying to get lucky!

If I'm really lucky perhaps I could figure out how to get them to pay me!  

Thanks again for your prayers, well wishes, and finger crossing. 

Picnics and Chameleons

On Tuesday Nick had off work for the Easter holidays so we had a picnic!  It was a bit chilly and windy, but there were plenty of people out enjoying the park... even the icecream man made an appearance!

We picked up some sandwiches from this little place called The Honey Pot, which I'd been dying to go to.  It has such a delicious sounding name don't you think?  Especially when all the other sandwich shops have names like "Pulled Pork Sandwich Shop"  Umm... not the best place for your favorite vegetarian.

Alas, in the country, vegetarian food is hard to come by and even in The Honey Pot, the best they had to offer was a sub par egg salad sandwich.

While we were out we stumbled across the coolest reptile shop ever.  Now I'm not normally in the business of sharing my dreams on this little blog, but a few weeks ago I had the most vivid dream about Heidi playing with a pet chameleon named Charlie.  I have been wanting a chameleon desperately ever since, but where the hell do you even buy a chameleon? Well this reptile shop sold them!

The owner asked if I kept reptiles, and I replied, "no but I had a dream about a chameleon and I've wanted one ever since!"  I could see his crazy lady / terrible reptile pet owner alert going off in his head, so I pulled the....

I've worked with cheetahs....

And elephants....

and Sumatran rhinoceros line. (coolest animal ever FYI, this is Emi and Harapan, they're famous)

I'm not sure if at that point he thought I was a complete nutter, but he seemed to believe me enough to tell me its chameleon breeding season!  And brand new (captive bred) chameleon babies will be available in a few weeks!

(Via)

Now these little cuties run about £100 a pop, and thats not including the fancy set up they require.  They're also prone to stress meaning they die easily and only live for 2-5 years if well taken care of.  Plus, the reptile guy said they are a lot of work and give you no affection, he recommended a bearded dragon as they are apparently more affectionate reptiles.  However, I still want/need/must have a baby chameleon.  

HAVE I LOST MY BLOODY MIND?

A Hike in the Forest and a Friend of Yogi Bear

Today we went on a little adventure to Epping Forest.  Nick and I love hiking there, and before we got Heidi we always said how much fun it would be to go there with a dog in tow.  We decided to make time for it today, even with the moving, since we won't have another chance to go there ever again.  It was more fun than we could've imagined.  Heidi was running laps around us.  Her gun dog genes kicked in and she was in her element.

She was definitely living up to her pointer name!  (and Nick managed to catch her in the act... finally!)

We sneaked into some Bear Grylls style shelters, but decided the whole survivor deal isn't for us.  They were a bit soggy and cramped inside.

Then we tried our hand at some wildlife photography... and got some pictures of these underwater lovers.

I tried my best to get a good shot of this bird, but it was not cooperating.  I have to admit it looked a lot more interesting before I blew it up on my computer anyways.

Also, we met a lot of fun dogs, including the son of this year's Crufts champion, the Hungarian Vizsla named Yogi!

Of course, Nick had the camera at that point, and I thought the owner would think I was effing weird if I was like "Nick take a picture of that dog!  We're in the presence of greatness!" Apparently, the guy bought him three and half years ago, before Yogi was a doggy sensation, and didn't pay much for him at all.  For those of you who don't get it - let's just say this guy hit the jackpot as far as buying a purebred dog goes.  I'm usually the type who is all "Have your pet spayed or neutered" ala Bob Barker, but man this owner must have been so pumped his vizsla still had the family jewels in tact.  He's gonna get paid a lot of money for letting his dog bang some bitches... Do you think his pick up line will be,"Hey there Boo Boo!"??? 

(you know... like Yogi bear and Boo boo? Yes? No? Are my obscure pop culture references lost on you?)