Last Week in Godstone, UK

Getting into a groove

Technically, Monday is still part of my first week in the UK, as I arrived on Thursday morning. But considering I usually post on Sundays… it is stuck in a void of being both my first week and my second week in the UK. Really I will not be out of this void until Thursday morning.

On Monday, Jordan and I took the bus for 30 minutes out of our tiny village where we are housesitting to go watch a movie at the theaters. We packed ourselves some sandwiches and had our little day planned. We ate our sandwiches at a park, and then watched Twisters!! Fantastic movie! It was funny watching it in the UK and entering the minds of the locals here and what they must be thinking about Americans while watching the movie. Do all Americans go to rodeos? Has everyone in the states seen a tornado? How many Americans have trucks with giant screws in them?

Genuinely, I would not be surprised if more than a few people had these questions, or if they thought it was an accurate portrayal of the majority of Americans. After watching the movie, we headed back to check on our pups, not before having a serious conversation about life and memory.

When we got back, I having been attacked by motion sickness did not want to cook. Luckily, the pub down the street had two for one pizza night so we went there. When we got there, it looked like they were setting up for some type of music. This was a pleasant surprise because we were expecting live music when we went on Saturday, but it was cancelled. It reminded me of the open mic sessions we used to do at my old coffee shop job, and was very nostalgic. I probably could have stayed the whole night, but we had to get little Jojo to bed.

Wednesday we walked to the farm store near us and had a very nice breakfast (it was 12.30pm). We actually got paninis! And then did a bit of shopping for a salad I planned on making later. We had plans to go out to the pub for the pie and a pint special night, but they were out of both the pies we wanted, so we came back and had some chicken and I made a nice salad!

We also did some prepping for our week in central London, making plans and adding places to our wishlists of places to go. Jordan actually had the idea to go to the theatre while in London. He wants the full London experience and wanted to see something very London. After a hearty debate between Hadestown and Mouse Trap, we ended up deciding on Agatha Christi’s mystery play. We also bought our railcards because we had a big trip planned for the next day!

On Thursday, to celebrate my first full week in the UK, we experienced some real action and took the train from our little village in Godstone to London. We took three trains and a bus to meet the next lady we are housesitting for who is an opera singer! Gave us some great insight on the arts scene and (I hope) convinced Jordan to go see a musical with me while we are in London! We chatted with her for almost four hours while learning about her neighborhood and the three little dogs we will be taking care of.

On Friday, we had another little adventure that I had been itching and planning for, for probably two months. Before we left, I was researching free things to do in and around London and I found the Mayfield Lavender Farm. We took the bus for almost an hour to get there and it was well worth it, the second we stepped off the bus we could smell the lavender! We walked around the massive fields of lavender and even had a little photoshoot.

After our photo session, we went to the cafe which was on site and got a lavender scone with clotted cream and some lavender earl grey tea. Probably could have tried all the pastries, they all looked amazing. Im glad we got the scone though because as we were eating Jordan revealed that this was his first ever scone!! Sadly, our very good smelling adventure came to an end and we came home to find that my entire back was sunburnt :’).

Saturday we closed out the week by cleaning up the house and prepping to leave for London the next week. We went out for dinner that night, having finished all of our food for the week. We even had dessert to celebrate a great week! While eating dessert, I found out that Jordan does not like orange chocolate. Im not sure if I can live with that.

Stay tuned for next week’s adventure for a full week in London <3 !!