March 25, 26, 2011
So this weekend began with venturing to the Romford Stadium to see the greyhound dog races. We weren’t 100% sure how to get there but we had five people and some directions so we decided to give it a go. However, when we got into Romford and started walking we couldn’t find it. We ended up in a residential area. We decided to turn around and go the other way. There were big lights in this huge field that we assumed was the stadium. We walked for like 20 minutes then called Jody (a.k.a. Malcom) to figure out why we weren’t there. He explained we had to look for the big blue sign saying Coral and that we had to turn around. So we turned around and caught the bus back as we realized it was all the way back where we started. We were about to get off the bus when I saw the sign we had been looking for. It was literally 10 feet from where we got off the bus the first time. However we were all looking for a huge sign. This was not a huge sign. It was a tiny sign with white letters spelling Coral with a blue trim. Very hard to see if that’s not what you are expecting. Luckily, we finally made it (losing two people along the way because they were annoyed with getting lost) and we got our free drink/ one pound bet. Rachel and I looked through the pamphlet to decide which dog to place our bet on. I decided to go with the dog with the best name. I didn’t even look at its’ stats. I picked Belief; since it reminded me of my tattoo. Both my dog and Rachel’s dog lost in their races. However, we definitely enjoyed cheering our dogs on. We ended up staying until the last race even though we weren’t placing any more bets. It was fun to pick a dog with the best name and cheer for it. The races go by so fast! It was hard to even take a picture they run so fast. And it’s really funny because they chase this moving toy! I didn’t like watching them being put into the cages though, especially since the dogs didn’t want to go into them. But they weren’t in them very long. It was also funny to watch Jody getting hit on by this guy who kept asking Jody for his recommendations for the bets and he would always take Jody’s advice and win. He kept trying to buy Jody a drink and ended up buying him one at the end of the night. It was also funny when Jody told the guy his name was Malcom haha. Reminded me of when I told the guy in Scotland I was Amanda. J When the races were over Rachel, Jen and I made our way home. No thanks to Jody who took up space in Auntie Liz and Uncle Jim’s car so we couldn’t fit! We got on the bus and made our way back to Romford then attempted to get on a bus there. However, they had closed the two most common bus stops and it took us forever to figure out where the other one was. The funny part was on the bus back to Romford there were these two girls (obviously Romford girls as they had a fake tan (we debated over this on the bus ride) and basically no clothes on with alcohol in their hands. However they were hilarious because they LOVED that we were American and from New York. They thought that was the coolest thing in the world. We were called celebrity’s asked to have our picture taken and also wanted us to autograph their arms haha. Don’t worry we didn’t do it haha. On our walk to find the bus stop we ran into the girls again lol. What an adventure. We finally found one that was open and we eventually got back home. Then I got ready for bed and for a big day in Oxford on Saturday.
So this weekend began with venturing to the Romford Stadium to see the greyhound dog races. We weren’t 100% sure how to get there but we had five people and some directions so we decided to give it a go. However, when we got into Romford and started walking we couldn’t find it. We ended up in a residential area. We decided to turn around and go the other way. There were big lights in this huge field that we assumed was the stadium. We walked for like 20 minutes then called Jody (a.k.a. Malcom) to figure out why we weren’t there. He explained we had to look for the big blue sign saying Coral and that we had to turn around. So we turned around and caught the bus back as we realized it was all the way back where we started. We were about to get off the bus when I saw the sign we had been looking for. It was literally 10 feet from where we got off the bus the first time. However we were all looking for a huge sign. This was not a huge sign. It was a tiny sign with white letters spelling Coral with a blue trim. Very hard to see if that’s not what you are expecting. Luckily, we finally made it (losing two people along the way because they were annoyed with getting lost) and we got our free drink/ one pound bet. Rachel and I looked through the pamphlet to decide which dog to place our bet on. I decided to go with the dog with the best name. I didn’t even look at its’ stats. I picked Belief; since it reminded me of my tattoo. Both my dog and Rachel’s dog lost in their races. However, we definitely enjoyed cheering our dogs on. We ended up staying until the last race even though we weren’t placing any more bets. It was fun to pick a dog with the best name and cheer for it. The races go by so fast! It was hard to even take a picture they run so fast. And it’s really funny because they chase this moving toy! I didn’t like watching them being put into the cages though, especially since the dogs didn’t want to go into them. But they weren’t in them very long. It was also funny to watch Jody getting hit on by this guy who kept asking Jody for his recommendations for the bets and he would always take Jody’s advice and win. He kept trying to buy Jody a drink and ended up buying him one at the end of the night. It was also funny when Jody told the guy his name was Malcom haha. Reminded me of when I told the guy in Scotland I was Amanda. J When the races were over Rachel, Jen and I made our way home. No thanks to Jody who took up space in Auntie Liz and Uncle Jim’s car so we couldn’t fit! We got on the bus and made our way back to Romford then attempted to get on a bus there. However, they had closed the two most common bus stops and it took us forever to figure out where the other one was. The funny part was on the bus back to Romford there were these two girls (obviously Romford girls as they had a fake tan (we debated over this on the bus ride) and basically no clothes on with alcohol in their hands. However they were hilarious because they LOVED that we were American and from New York. They thought that was the coolest thing in the world. We were called celebrity’s asked to have our picture taken and also wanted us to autograph their arms haha. Don’t worry we didn’t do it haha. On our walk to find the bus stop we ran into the girls again lol. What an adventure. We finally found one that was open and we eventually got back home. Then I got ready for bed and for a big day in Oxford on Saturday.
The Journey to Oxford begins. Saturday morning after waking up and getting everything ready for our trip, Rachel, Kat, and I began our journey to Oxford. This simple journey that should have taken us one tube and one coach (not a bus as I was informed) was completely screwed up with engineering works on the tube. Therefore, our one tube ride turned into 4! We got off the tube at Bank and had to literally run to Monument then we still had about 6 stops to go before our stop and it was almost 11:30. Our coach left at 11:50 and we were supposed to be there 20 minutes early! We were thinking we weren’t going to make it when we heard that a station was closed because of the protesting and the police evacuated the station. So we finally got to Victoria station and then of course it took us forever to find our actual coach because Victoria station is so big and so complicated. We saw some buses that said London to Oxford on the side and asked if that was our bus and turns out it was! We made it! Then we got to relax on the bus ride to Oxford. Once we got there we decided to go on a walking tour led by the best tour guide ever….ME! In the book given to me by my wife Molly, there was a walking tour we could follow. So we did that, looking at all the different universities….and boy were there tons!, the gardens, and the museums. We walked past the botanical gardens and through the sweet maze then I read in the book that the gardens were not to be missed. So we went to check them out and saw that they cost a lot of money to get into. We could however look over the hedges to see the gardens…and take a picture of the garden for free! We then made our way to the science museum which was free to get into and we looked around in there for a bit. That is however how we strayed away from my map and got us a little bit lost. I even tried getting into my map like Joey, but it just didn’t work! We finally found our way back onto the red dotted line and continued the rest of the walking tour. After the tour we decided to go to a pub for some food. We hung out eating and drinking for a while. It was really nice to relax and be in good company. After dinner we went to get our souvenirs and some ice cream before heading back home. We got on the coach and decided when we got back to go home instead of going out like we had planned. On our way back we saw two very bad accidents which wasn’t good. But luckily they were on the other side of the road so they didn’t interfere with our traffic. We finally made it back home and went to bed.
Overall, it was a great weekend!
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