At a Glance: Burgers. Pottery. Pubs. Football

Sorry for the lack of posts from us. Boy, have we been busy this month. Can you believe it is already the end of October? We have had a couple "normal" weeks around here.  Jeff has been working a lot, so he has been really busy lately.  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary two weeks ago.  There was monsoon-like weather so instead of going out, we watched our wedding video, ate pizza, had a glass of wine, and many many desserts.  We properly celebrated the following Friday by heading out to Annie's Burger Shack and Freehouse, which was the best burger I have had since we moved here.  Ahhh-mazing! The lady who owns it is from New England.

 Best two years ever!

This past week, I was able to go with a few friends to the Denby Pottery Factory & Shops (Pottery made in the Derbyshire area, around where Jeff works) on Thursday.  We ate at the little cafe, and then shopped. I finally found a teapot to bring home! It was almost addicting to see all the different types of pottery as well as the different pieces. I wanted to buy a lot, but settled for a beautiful little teapot.  I still have my eye on the cake stand...

 

My teapot's new spot in our flat! 

 This past weekend was a great one, as we went out with some friends on Friday night.  We met up with our friends in Nottingham to hit up Pitcher & Piano (the church-pub) and headed out to a few other places.  It was a fun night out, although I felt super old hanging around bars with "kids" (drinking age, 18).

My friend, Jo and I, at Pitcher & Piano

Saturday came quickly, and we headed to The City Ground to watch our first "football" match. AKA, American friends, SOCCER. Our friends, Andrew & Julie, came with us to the game. We stopped at a local pub that was on the canal near our house. It was a great environment inside, although we ate outside.  The pub had a boat garage, so part of the canal ran through the restaurant and boats were inside. Very cool place. 

Anyway--we went to the stadium to watch the Nottingham Forest (Tricky Trees) play the Blackburn Rovers,  Jeff bought a Nottingham Forest scarf, grabbed our tickets, and headed to our seats.  We were up high, but we had a really good view.  There were over 27,000 people at the game.  

 View from our seats

It was a great environment, although the atmosphere was nothing compared to American ball games.  There was not a whole lot of music, announcing, or even much on the "jumbo" screens.  Although they didn't have the flashiness, like our American sports do...I felt like people were there for just the raw sport, and not all of the other pieces of entertainment, which was cool.  The crowd was REALLY into the game, especially the opposing team who ended up whooping us 3-1. I felt because there was not so much entertainment, people truly paid attention to the sport itself.  And speaking of football (this time, American Football).  It was great to see American Football being played on our live TV screen this weekend, as Detroit and Atlanta played over here in London.  Tickets were super expensive and of course, sold out...but that would have definitely been a fun experience.  Either way--I think Jeff was a happy camper when he could watch it on a real TV and not a computer screen.

Group shots!

All-in-all, it was a great experience and one we checked off of the bucket list.  We can't believe that we are running out of time to accomplish some of these events, places, etc. that we want to before we move home.  It was crazy to us that we are already planning our 2015 trips! 

Busy week ahead, hope to post again soon! 

Onto the next adventure...