Exeter

I had the greatest weekend in Exeter. It was a totally different kinda great to my time in Stoke, but it was definately great :-)

The train journey on Friday was LONG; 3hr 41mins. But fortunately we had reserved seats and all was well. Although the refreshment trolley man took about 2 hours to get to us, by which point Nana was threatening to eat Dan and I!! Anywho we arrived at Exeter St Davids and was greated by the lovely Stuart aka Nodz/Moose. It was SO good to see him again.


He drove us to their house in Clyst Heath. Apparently where they live used to be a mental institute and was converted into housing about 10 or so years ago. This picture is of an old institute not too unlike Clyst Heath. It was interesting actually coz once he'd said it, I could totally tell it from all the pictures and stuff I've looked at of hospitals and institutes in my course. We got to his house and were greeted by the lovely Katy. They have a lovely house, all beautiful and matching and just generally lovely.
So Friday night we ate and chatted for a few hours. And had a reasonably early night.

Saturday we had a lazyish morning and then jumped in the car and headed off to Dartmouth. We went on the ferry tugboat thing across the Estuary. That lasted about 2 mins and then we were in Dartmouth. We pootled around a bit looking at the sea and some shops. We had lunch in Cache - a cute little cafe and then had some lovely Salcombe dairy ice cream. Stuart got really excited about it!! Then we got back in the car and drove down to Slapton Sands - the beach!

It was gorgeous to be by the sea with great friends. Dan and Stu tried to skim stones, but didn't do too well! Then they decided to play chicken with the waves and got caught out first time!! It was hilarious! We found some beautiful stones and shells. We wandered along by the sea, watching the tide come in. Dan found a fish, which was kinda gross, but really cool. He picked it up and everything!!

We stopped off in a cafe and had a cream tea. Mmmm, it was SO good! Then drove back to their house and lounged around a bit. We decided to go out for dinner, so we headed off to the Countess Wear Beefeater and had a mighty fine meal. Then back to the house for several games of Pictionary which proved to be very funny. Dan showed his incompetence at drawing a blue tit, well a tit to be precise!! And Stuart stuggled to guess what a black eye was by asking 'what are you doing to it?' when I was consistently circling this eye with black rings! Dan had no idea what a periscope was and it was generally very amusing.

Sunday morning we went to Trinity Church. It meets at the school in Clyst Heath. It is an Anglican church, planted from St Leonards in city centre. It's been going about 4 years I think. It was cool. Quite informal, yet with traditional Anglican stuff. We had communion, sang some cool songs and the vicar spoke on Joseph. It was good and nice to be at another church :-)

We went back and chilled for a bit while Stu made us fajitas for lunch. Mmmm, so tasty! Then we headed off to Topsham, had a look around the quay and went to Darts Farm. They had a huge farm market I guess which was full of food, gifts, home furniture (kitchen stuff really), agas, alcohol (home brewed) and generally very cool stuff!!

Then back to Exeter St David's to go home :-( Because Nana is working in Bristol today she stayed on last night. So just Dan and I on the way home. Mummy Smith had prepared a train picnic for us to prevent the hunger attack we'd had on the way up!! And it was time to say goodbye. It was really sad and I had to try hard not to cry. I love Stu and Katy so much and really miss them being around. It was so beautiful in Devon and great to be with such wonderful friends.

Anywho, the train journey was LONG (same as before) but Dan and I chatted and we read through Titus and got talking about Paul's letters. When we got to Clapham Junction this woman asked Dan for a cigarette and then for some money. He gave her a cigarette, but had no money. It was so funny coz she said "No I didn't think you'd have any. You look like you're the same as me, on social benefits and that". Oh it was SO funny!!

Ah, good times weekend.... Love you guys