31 Spots on the Final Nottingham Tour

One of my final days in Nottingham, I made sure to just walk around with my camera to take pictures of all my favorites.  I, of course, wanted to share them with my Us in the UK family.  Many of our visitors will remember some of these pictures, as they are places we walked by or visited on our "Sarah's Daily Life" tour.

1. Albert Hall
   
2. Nottingham Playhouse
   
3. Nottingham Castle
   
4. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem
   
   
   
5. Shopping Streets
   
6. Capital One Ice Arena
   
7. Ugly Bread Bakery
   
8. Wired Cafe
   
9. Train Station
10. Tesco Metro
    
11. Pitcher & Piano
    
12. Nottingham Theatre & Cornerhouse
    
13.  Miscellaneous Parks
    
14. Clubs, Restaurants, and Pubs
    
15. Brown's Bar and Brasserie
    
16. Beautiful Streets
    
17. Annie's Burger Shack
    
18. The Park (Gated Neighborhood)
    
    
19. Our Flat
    
    
20.  The Gym
    
21. Old Market Square
    
22. Wollaton Hall and Deer Park
23. Another Street Filled with Restaurants, Shops, and Pubs
24. Favorite Indian Restaurants (Jeff and I disagree on which is the best)
    
25. Favorite Quick Eat...BarBurrito
    
26. Bus Stop to Derby
    
27. Library
28. Best Late Night Food
    
29. Poundland (Yes, similar to Dollar Tree)
30. The Canal
    
31. Trent River
    

Kitty Cafe

Things are so hectic here, that I almost didn't write this post.  As you can tell, I have been blogging quite a bit and scheduling the posts for a few days later.  Hints, the one post a day lately. I thought about it, and I would have made a special blog post about this experience if it wasn't for the whole...moving home thing. So here I am typing away!

My friend, Emily, and I always try out new places to eat in Nottingham.  We definitely have a couple favorites, and enjoy catching up over a long lunch & tea/coffee.  We found this place called Kitty Cafe.  I have walked by it before but never noticed the REAL CATS in the large windows.  There are little hammocks, beds, and a jungle gym in the window not only for the cats' enjoyment but for pedestrians to see the cute little kitties.  This special cafe actually is a charity that allows you to adopt the cats within the shop.  You can take pictures of them, play with them, and pet them.  They have rules about picking them up and whatnot though.

 My friend, Emily, and I

 Up in the "treetops"

 Cute little hideaways

 
Before you get seriously grossed out that we ate lunch in a place filled with cats (I'm sure a few of you have this nightmare).  It had a 5-star hygiene rating, which is the highest a restaurant can have! We asked a little bit about how it passes health codes, and they do everything electronically so the waitstaff never sets foot in the kitchen.  It was a very clean place, and the cats were very well taken care of.  We especially loved the little 9-week old kittens who were running all over the place.  It was so cute to see all the the nooks, towers, slides, and walkways they had for the cats to run around.  They have 31 cats as of right now, but many of them are in the extensive process of being adopted.  Emily and I both wanted to take one home...but refrained. 

Hanging out under our table. Hiding from the other cats who were wanting to play

 The holes in the walls went from one room to the other. The kittens loved it!

 I wanted to take this sweet one home, as he looked so sad.  Very sweet, reminded me a lot of Mackey.

Overall, It was really enjoyable! You have to book in advance, as we had tried to go a few weeks back and they were booked for the day.  Emily and I both love cats, so this was the perfect farewell for now lunch before I head back to the states.  I will definitely miss my lunches with her!



You should check out the cafe's website as it highlights the cats that are trying to be adopted.

On to the next adventure...

Final Dinners/Lunches with Friends

After a few people could not make our Leaving Do, we met up in smaller groups so we could have our proper goodbyes with one another.  One night, I rode the bus into Derby to meet up with 2 other couples (and obviously Jeff) to have a fantastic steak dinner.  This is the first time I have had steak over here, and in the last 3 years... It was really good and I left completely stuffed! It was fun hanging out one last time as a group.  I am extremely appreciative of these people, as they took Jeff and I in and treated us as if we had been friends for a long time.  That was such a great feeling so early on in our journey living over here.

We will miss them all dearly, and hope to meet up with them regularly with trips in the United States or over here in Europe.

Also, I had a Mexican Fiesta at our flat for my American friends in the Better Halves Club.  If you do not remember, we get together 1-2x a month for lunch.  We are able to share stories, give travel tips, and be a person to talk to get advice about living abroad.  Being a part of this group was wonderful, as I came out with a few really close friends.  It also gave me a lot of information, so I could go back and share with Jeff.  I'm not sure we would have known the procedure for getting his driver's license without these wonderful women.  Anyway, I wanted to see the group one last time before flying out.  We normally meet in Derby, but they all graciously came the long hull to see me for a change.  We were able to munch on tacos and other Mexican dishes.  It makes me even more excited to eat about 500 Taco Bell tacos within the week!!

I was also able to give them some of my "extras" or things we were not taking back with us to the states.  It was nice to give them to people who could use them instead of trashing things like cleaning products.  The rest of the stuff they didn't want will make its way to the charity shops  or some other local friends in the next couple of days.  

 

Jo and I

Luela and I 

  The Better Halves Club (minus the photographer, Luela)

On to the next adventure...

Preparations for the Big Move

Many people have been asking "What does your next two weeks of living in the UK look like? It has actually been a whirlwind this entire month [of May].  A few updates, and things that I have been doing.

• Update on Jobs: I can officially say that a couple weeks ago I accepted a first grade position back in my school district (not the same elementary school).  I am so excited for this new opportunity!
• Packing: Yowza, this one is a pain!  As you know, the assessment company came a few weeks back to see how much stuff we had accumulated.  Now, we have decided to ship all of the items back when Jeff leaves at the end of July.  So, to make things easier on him as he will have enough loose ends to tie up when he leaves (closing bank, canceling cable, etc.) I have started filling our second bedroom with stuff that will be shipped back to the states.  It's going well so far.
  
  
• Friends: I have a couple more friends I'd like to see before heading back.  We  have planned a few lunches, tea/coffees breaks, and dinners with close friends before heading out next week.  Looking forward to seeing them before flying out. 
  
• Sorting:  We have been selling a lot of our UK-plug appliances and things we do not want to take back home.  I have been going through things the last several months, and look forward to giving lots of things away in the next week.  It is hard to believe how much you accumulate over time, especially because we don't have a lot over here to begin with.  We get a lot of the stuff from other Americans that leave...so needless to say I have a crazy amount of cleaning supplies. We live so much simpler.  But still---lots of junk.
  
  
• Cars:  A few of you have been asking about cars. No news there, as we are just going to have to do all that once we are there in person.  Pretty pumped to get a vehicle though! 
• Welcome Home Celebrations: I know many of you are asking "When can we get together?", and I thank you all for being patient with us as we are not sure what to expect when we get back.  Things may all fall into place nicely, and we may have tons of time on our hands.  We're not sure what to expect until we experience it.  We can't wait to see you all, so we promise we'll see each and every one of you as soon as we possibly can. Lots of hugs to give out!! 

That is pretty much it for updates and what my next couple of weeks will look like.  It sure will be busy, and I am still trying to soak up as much as I can.  Real world is about to come, whether I am ready for it or not.

On to the next adventure...

Reading the Signs of England

Another suggestion from the "Your Turn" blog post was a curiosity about the street signs over here. Jeff's mom remembered them from her trip over here years ago (and we discussed them during her recent trip as well),  so I thought I would take the time to walk around the city of Nottingham to take some street sign pictures. It was actually a pretty fun adventure as I went on a nice long walk around the city on a beautiful sunny day.

One of our favorite street sign differences is a sign that says "Way Out" instead of "Exit" when leaving a train station or something similar.  Jeff says it reminds him of a caveman, as it is a less formal way of saying "exit".  Which is actually surprising, given things over here are more "proper" than back home.  Of course, on my walk around the city I couldn't find this sign.  I'll see if I can investigate a bit more so I can add it to the post.

Have fun looking through all the signs around the city below...