Country Girl

I wish I had pictures to post here, but silly ole me, since I rushed to pack yesterday afternoon, I forgot my camera. And my toothbrush. I went out to Guildford yesterday, where Nicole and Rob live, and remembered why I'd wanted to come to England in the first place. Guildford is in Surrey, the county where my parents also used to live, and it is gorgeous. I got the grand tour of city center, and then Nicole and Rob's little apartment, which was very nice actually...they live in a quiet block of flats with a shared central grassy area. Nicole introduced me to her two little friends- one a baby who must be at least 2 years old because he's able to walk and get up into the front window of his flat, where he proceeds to plaster himself against the window, wave and giggle at the funny faces we made at him from Nicole's flat. And the other was a little old lady who appeared this morning in her Sunday best, with a strand of pearls- she puttered around with some potted plants outside her door, and then sat on the bench in the sunshine for a bit before the day became too hot.

We checked out three country pubs this weekend. One on Saturday night, near the river, where I enjoyed my first Pimms in this country since the summer of 1997. It was classic country pub, complete with a huge dog lying in front of the bar. We sat out back by the river, listening to the fish jump, as we talked and drank. And then when the pub started to close down, we danced ourselves silly on the grass across the street, as someone pumped music and disco lights from their house, inviting an impromptu summer rave. This morning we got up and decided to do a pub walk-- country walks are great, but we all agreed the point is the pub at the end. Yes, you see beautiful countryside, but you also work bloody hard on the walk (at least we did on this one!), and everything's better with a drink, social occasions just call for it. Rob stuck to shandys since he was driving, but Nicole and I felt free to indulge ourselves. The pub where we ended our 5 mile hike is a great place for a romantic dinner spot, or to bring guests you want to impress (hint, hint, who's coming over next?), with incredible views, a terraced lawn, and an overall Meditteranean feel to it. We didn't stay there for lunch, as it didn't offer traditional pub fare, but I'd love to go back to it someday.

One of the best parts about the weekend I think was Rob's driving. He really opened up on those country roads, many of which are only really big enough for one car, but have a divider line painted optimistically down the center. I sort of reflexively held onto the handlebar on my door, but there was a huge grin plastered on my face as we raced along gorgeously green and overgrown country roads. More speed, more speed!!

I've decided I don't like London. For living at least. There are wonderful things to do here, plenty of things to do here, culture, a great nightlife, and you can get anywhere from here, but I am just not a city girl at heart. I think I suspected that, but as I had never truly lived in a big city, I guess I had to find that out once and for all. Were I to be able to change things right now, one of the things I would do would be to take a job in the English countryside, the reason why I fell in love with England in the first place, all those times I came to visit my parents.