Bank Holidays are for everyone...

As I found out, just because this is not a very religious country, does not mean that people do not do loads of traveling around Easter. This weekend is a four day weekend for the whole country: bank holiday. Everyone gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off. Pretty sweet deal, right?

Except for travel however. Everyone was at Euston station this past friday morning I was trying to get to Wigan. What should have been a 2 hour direct train ending up being a 5 hour journey on 3 different trains. Unfortunetly there had been a worker who died on the track near enough to Euston station so no trains were allowed to leave from Euston. So I went across London to Marylbone to start my crazy journey, no doubt zig-zaging accross England. But eventually I made it and have had a relaxing time ever since.

Right now I am not to be found in London: I am visiting another former au pair of mine, Ellie, at her home/pub a 15 minute drive from Wigan.


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She lives above the White Lion Pub which she (basically...it's complicated) owns with her husband. The White Lion is on the side of the road with a tiny smattering of houses around it. Other than that there are farms and rolling hills with the occasional patch of houses and a local pub or two. Yet even without much of a town center many people come to the White Lion. Spending all your time in a country pub does lead to some interesting experiences. Like being praised for your accent. Or meeting all the locals and then preceeding to get many bad jokes and history lessons of the local town. And then getting included in the locals' rounds because you decided to listen. Keeping up with the rounds can be quite a challenge. I don't know how people do that more than 1 night a week. Being able to order anything you want off a menu and not worry about the price. I got a pudding sunday (warmed up cake covered in syrup, ice cream and whipped cream). There was so much whipped cream that most of it fell off the sunday before I could eat it. It was tasty though.

Today Ellie and I went to Southport and tried to see the sea. The tide goes so far out that even with a pier that is so long there is a tram ride from one end to the other you must squint to see it. But it was a nice walk.