We are GLEEKS!!!

Back in December Ellie and Sarah decided that it was definitely a good idea to book tickets to see Glee live on tour...it was very exciting for all as they went online, booked the tickets and received the confirmation email!

Fast-forward 7 months and the day had finally arrived...and of course, since this involved Sarah & Ellie travelling somewhere together it comes under the category of 'Ellie and Sarah's Road Trips' and therefore deserves a blog of it's own! (The concert was actually a week ago but apparently now that she's unemployed Sarah is incapable of doing anything to timescales and has to be reminded and prompted before actually writing this blog!)

Now obviously, following recent travelling debacles (see previous post), Ellie and Sarah decided to leave plenty of time to travel.
The plan included driving to Hillingdon, tubing to Wembley Park, changing tubes and tubing to North Greenwich to arrive at the O2.

The drive to Hillingdon was fairly uneventful, we had Glee tracks to keep us company, we had chats about things both deep and shallow.
We arrived at Hillingdon to realise that neither of us had thought to bring any change...we searched purses and bags and pockets and every nook and cranny of Sarah's car to find that we were £1.10 short...fortunately upon further investigation we discovered that the machine took card so that was solved quickly.

We purchased our tickets and were on the tube promptly. Once on the tube Ellie and Sarah indulged in a spot of people watching:
- the school boys chatting away
- the middle-aged woman who told one of them off for putting his feet on the seat (Ellie and Sarah quickly moved their feet too before being spotted!)
- the man slyly drinking a can of beer behind his briefcase
- the couple who may have been on their first date
- the smart business people who got on at Canary Wharf

Then before we knew it, we were there!
We stepped off the tube and immediately knew we were amongst our people- there were brightly coloured t-shirts everywhere, people seemed happier and walked with a little spring in their step...it was clear to see that they were also here to see Glee!

Upon entering the O2 arena we somehow managed to walk right past the security check-points...don't ask us how! We can assure you that we had nothing dangerous on us!
We stopped by a cash point, we chatted to some women in the queue (they couldn't remember the name of a character...Sarah quickly stepped in to tell them the answer!)...we bought our 'L' shaped foam fingers and headed off to explore.

We had successfully managed to arrive with plenty of time to spare and therefore had time to have a beautiful meal at a restaurant in the O2...it was at this point that Ellie and Sarah realised that they had never been out for a meal together! They'd eaten together almost every wednesday for the last 10 months but it had always been at Ellie's house...they'd been on multiple road-trips where fast-food was eaten...they'd been out for dinner with other people...but not just the two of them.
In a movie this would be the part where the two characters would suddenly realise that they had nothing in common and had nothing to talk about...this was definitely not the case with Ellie and Sarah! They chatted away, trying to avoid the over-friendly waiter...looking out for any possible famous people...being amazed at the massive queue for the toilets!

Following dinner, Sarah changed into her Gleek t-shirt (Ellie's hadn't arrived in time) and we took our seats (on a seperate note I've realised that I've been switching between 'we' and 'they' this entire blog...but it's late and I can't be bothered to change it sorry!!)
They discovered that they were very high up, but right near the stage so not so bad!
It was at this point that both Ellie and Sarah needed the toilet so they squeezed past the row to go out to the toilets...upon their return, the woman next to them did the same...then her husband...the people on the end were looking grumpy!
Through these moves Sarah somehow managed to strike up a conversation with the woman next to them...we don't know her name but we have decided that she looked like a Helen so she will be called Helen!
Helen and Sarah chatted about which Glee boy they fancied, then when Helen's husband returned (we'll call him Mark)...all of them shared some fruit pastilles and it a friendship was born!

Then it started!
And it was everything we could have hoped for...
The songs, the dancing, the skits, the music! It was so much fun and amazing :D

As various points throughout the evening Helen would stand up to dance and grab Sarah to join her...who would in turn grab Ellie to join them! Admittedly neither Sarah nor Ellie needed much encouragement to stand and dance to their favourite Glee tracks!

The exit from the concert was epic...Ellie and Sarah were smart enough to rush quickly to the toilets before a queue formed but this meant getting caught in the rush leaving the arena.
They queued out of the O2...they queued into the tube station (with thousands of other people)...thankfully the tubes are very regular and they got seats on their tube.
People watching ensued once more:
- the loud girls who thought they were too cool for school
- the businessman who got on at Canary Wharf and was very good looking...he read an important looking document and had no wedding ring...Sarah wondered if this was her opportunity to marry into money...unfortunately he got off the tube before he had the chance to realise he was in love with her...we named him Tom.
- the teenage couple who spent the whole trip glued to each others side, sometimes kissing, mostly just stroking each other...they stayed with us all the way to Hillingdon...we were not impressed!

Back at Hillingdon we got in the car and safely made our way back to Oxford having had the most beautiful Glee-filled evening :D

Until next time!
Sarah and Ellie xxx

'Sorry Bus Full'

So a blog needs to be written about Ellie & Sarah's recent trip to Glee...but in order to give some context to their recent travel escapades, firstly you all need to hear a story about what happened to Sarah & Ellie a few weeks ago, since it involved travel it probably counts as a road trip and therefore needs to be blogged about:

It was Wednesday and Sarah & Ellie had travelled into London to be in the audience for the new TV show 'The Marriage Ref'...they were not alone in their travels and were accompanied by PJ (Sarah's brother), Hannah (Sarah's childhood friend) and Tegan (Ellie & Sarah's very good friend from uni)....

The group had travelled in safely, with everyone realising how lucky they were to be a part of an Ellie & Sarah road trip. They had seen the show, laughed alot and been told that they were Dermot O'Leary's favourites. The group found themselves waiting at the bus-stop at 10.30pm looking forward to getting on the Oxford Tube bus and getting home.

1. An Oxford Tube bus goes past 'Sorry Bus Full'
Oh dear...that's unfortunate, we'll have to wait a bit...this means that Sarah, PJ & Hannah will miss their bus home from Oxford (quick call to Daddy Brombley to ask him to pick them up from Oxford).

2. Another bus goes past 'Sorry Bus Full'
Oh wow...the group doesn't understand why it is so busy. A few people use the toilets in the nearby Hilton and realising that Daddy Brombley has an early start in the morning, another phone call is made to ask a friend to pick them up instead.

3. Another bus goes past 'Sorry Bus Full'
Somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd bus, almost all the other people at the bus stop decide to get on the Oxford Tube on the other side of the road...perhaps they were hoping to do a loop into London and back out again (since our bus stop was on the outskirts of London), perhaps they simply wanted warmth and comfy seats...perhaps they got some sort of kick out of paying extra money to be on a bus for longer...the group weren't sure, but they chose to stick it out!

4. Yet another bus 'Sorry Bus Full'
However this bus stops and a lovely bus driver tells us that he doesn't have any spaces but he wanted to explain why this was happening, apparently some band (Kings of Leon) had a small concert (in Hyde Park) and it had now finished and everyone was pouring out onto the buses. He apologised and said that more buses were coming. (Another call to say to friend not to worry about coming to get us as we would be later than expected!)

5. Another bus 'Sorry Bus Full'

6. 'Sorry Bus Full'
At this point we were getting a little frustrated. There were prayers. There was some scripture quoted. There was cardigans and coats put on. There was multiple tweets. There were 'what ifs'...e.g. if it had just been Sarah on her own then PJ would've already driven in to get her...or if Ellie had been on her own then Sarah would've driven in to get her...suddenly having both PJ and Sarah in London was not seeming so beneficial.
Also the group made friends with a guy who turned up at the bus stop- turns out he was also from Brookes...whilst he was in the bathroom the group discussed whether perhaps the reason for the delay was really so they could evangelise to this man? But before this could happen...

7. 'Bus to Oxford'
This was it...in the distance we spotted the (by now) disctinctive outline of an Oxford Tube bus...and yes, the letters on the front seemed to imply that it had spaces...everyone held their breath and prayed furiously. The bus stopped and it was clear to see that it was half-empty- plenty of seats for all!
1.30am...3 hours and 7 buses later and the group were on their way back to Oxford.


Closing their eyes to nap, suddenly the bus was in Oxford...dropping Ellie & Tegan at their prospective stops through Oxford...Sarah, PJ & Hannah got off in the City Centre and took a taxi back to Hannah's house in Abingdon following which PJ and Sarah walked home.

3.30am and everyone was home and in their beds...one of those stories that they would laugh about in the morning!

We went to Playzone and boy did we play!

This was our first road trip in a while, and man it was a big one! A celebratory road trip for our road tripping one year anniversary! Our mission, which we chose to accept, was to venture down to Portsmouth and go and play on this massive indoor children play area which lets adults play on a friday night!!!

We were accompanied by several people this time (how privileged they were to join us!) - they were Bryony - our token guatemalan, Alex - our token ginge, Tracey - our token Australian, Jessie - our token Welsh and Hannah - our token shorty. And after a fine meal of Spag Bol at Jessie and Hannah's house we set off in a two car convoy to go and have a long awaited play!

The drive itself was fairly straight forwards in terms of pretty much driving in a straight line, but there were interesting traffic going ons, on the A34 due to a crash, and we had the option of whether to take a diversion or not. As we reached the devision to take the diversion, the road ahead of us was clear, we thought the traffic drama of earlier in the day had subsided and we asked for a sign - there wasn't one/or we didn't pay enough attention - so we went with Ellie's gut, and didn't take the diversion, what a mistake!! Although the traffic was not at a complete standstill, it was fairly solid, mainly because people were slowing down to look at the smooshed up car on the other side of the road, which admittedly we did too - it was very smooshed. After that snail-pace driving for a little while, we powered through with some slightly tuneless renditions of Glee songs, and were soon zooming off to Portsmouth - well zooming as fast as Jessie's little car could zoom!

Soon we had spied the blue seas and promising lands of Portsmouth - and the excitement kicked in as we saw the flag which indicated destination reached on the sat nav! And as we pulled in to the car park, we looked past the fact that we were in an industrial estate and were about to go in to a fairly dodgy looking warehouse! Getting into the building was a mission in itself, guarded by two doormen, who knew we needed ID to get in to a play area! Unfortunately, none of us realised, and by sheer fluke, all of us but Tracey had ID, so they point-blankely refused her entry - which was ironic as she was the oldest out of all of us! Although sad, she refused to let us drive two hours and not go in (Tracey is very lovely - you all should know). The doormen were just plain mean, as we were queuing up to get in, Sarah had a bag search, and in her bag was her bible, the doorman asked her what book it was, and when Sarah replied, 'the bible' he said, 'get to the back of the queue...[waited a little]...'i guess that would be discriminatory though wouldn't it' - if the rest of us had heard this conversation we would have said we were all christians - and that would've been crazy coz he'd keep sending us to the back of the queue, and we'd just keep going round in circles! We come away from that with the comfort that he has at least seen the bible.

And then we entered...wow! It was like we were 7 years old again! Labelled by purple wrist bands, we were met with a sight of incredible slides, tunnels, ball pools, ropes, those big round things that squish you and sooooo much more, it was like being in a sweet shop but with the sweets replaced by fun!!! And so off we went, running about like we didn't have a care in the world! After about 15minutes we regrouped by the punchbags, and thought we would tackle the SLIDES!!! There were several slides - the multicoloured wiggly slides (the easiest of them all), the tube slide (slightly claustrophobic, but rubbish), the blue slide (a slight vertical drop then wiggly the whole way down) and the RED slide (the scary vertical drop into a slight angle to stop you breaking any bones, set at different heights for the brave/idiots!). The worst part was sitting on the edge, bringing up the courage to plunge off the edge, and pray that we wouldn't die in the process! Bryony and Hannah were not quite man enough to tackle the blue slide, they liked the multi-coloured one :P Alex and Jessie stopped at the blue one (which is brave in itself) - after taking several times to hurl themselves off the edge! Sarah and Ellie were the idiots of the group, tackling the biggest red one - wasn't the most enjoyable experience in the world, as you sped down this "cliff" the speed whipped your head back, and you get a sort of slide induced whiplash - now you see why only idiots tackle this! After our slide adventures we decided to play a game of 40:40/123bazooka (depending on what you call it), which was a bit of a laugh, which then turned into freezetag (as Bryony called it), but we all secretly knows that it is stuck in the mud! Running about, screaming like little girls again, what more could you want! After this game we had a quick little play - Alex and Ellie attempted to go through a series of bungie ropes, clearly made for children half the size of themselves, and as they tried to get to the lower level, they were whipped as the bungie's sprung back - and they just couldn't escape this pain without experiencing more pain - why would children want to experience this!! As well as this, we all tried to go through this tiny tunnel, clearly not built for women like us, with fine child-bearing hips, it was a case of belly crawling our way through and not freaking out that there was a high possibility we would get wedged in the middle of this play area, luckily all who attempted made it out in one piece! With one last challenge of tackling the scariest slide we felt we could do without pooing ourselves, we left what can only be known as the best place in the world, but not before getting a slushy - we really had reverted back to childhood! Heading out to the cars absolutely knackered understanding why children need to eat lots of sweeties, going to see Tracey with a new found love of Australia! It was time to head back to Oxford, how heartbreaking to leave Playzone behind!

The drive back was fairly uneventful, other then Jessie trying to get on the dual carriage way the wrong way (how embarrassing for all involved :P), and Alex clearly exhausted by the fun times had a good old nap, as Sarah and Ellie did the normal road tripping thing of having a deep conversation on our way back into Ox.

A fun time was had by all! What a road trip!!!!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah and Ellie (and Alex, Jessie, Tracey, Hannah and Bryony)

xXxxxxxxxxxxXx

We got lost on our way to Overy!

As we scanned over the map, 2 names caught our attention...Overy and Toot Baldon...and so off we went on yet another road trip adventure!

As we ventured down towards Toot Baldon, the map may have been read wrong by Ellie, and we missed it completely, however, this didn't stop us, and we just made the decision to hit it up on the way back - and so on to Overy we went...

Overy was a little bit of a drive from Toot Baldon, so we became heavily engrossed in important conversation, only to realise Sarah had been on autopilot, and quite frankly, Ellie wasn't paying attention...surprising...nope! :P We had missed Overy completley, we couldn't even pretend that we had simply missed the road...we were long gone...

As a result, we decided to, in the words of Dorey from Finding Nemo, Just keep swimming (except as we were in a car, and neither of us had our swimming costumes on, it was more Just keep driving...but you get the picture of us carrying on driving...please don't picture us in swimming costumes...). And so it turned out if you keep driving from the Overy area, you reach Henley on Thames and as a result, we felt it was our need - nay our DUTY to go in search of Philip Schofield! and look at some posh houses next to a river, it was all rather lovely, almost like something out of the famous five. Unfortunatley, there was no Phil in sight...not even a Phil lookalike...not even a silver fox...if Henley on Thames wasn't so pleasant, we would have come away feeling utterly disappointed!

And so, onwards and upwards, back towards those places we had missed, this time paying much more attention! Back through Shillingford, accidentally turning onto a road, which can really only be described as a driveway...and a suspicious driveway at that, with a sign saying Watch Children, which neither included the correct grammar nor punctuation to make us feel as though this was a place we wanted to be...and so after a swift turn around, we shortly found Overy!!

How excited we were, only to find that the way was blocked by bin men, and we could not venture into the heart of Overy...gutting...those binmen strike again!!

Last stop on our road trip for this friday afternoon was Toot Baldon (as mentioned a little earlier). And after passing over the Golden Balls Roundabout, we reached it. Although a quaint little village, with nothing particularly exciting occuring, we did get a little squeaky in excitement when waiting for some horses to pass, and seeing the horses in the field next to the road get SOOOOOO excited about seeing these other horses, that they were spinting up to the hedge...to the extent, that at one point we were pretty sure they were going to make a break for freedom (thank goodness they didn't, we'd have got squashed by a horse, and I'm no expert, but of all the ways to pop your clogs, that really isn't very desirable). As the horses passed us we both exclaimed at how truly handsome this horse was (now I know you're thinking...how can a horse be handsome...well it had a fancy hair cut going on, and had a heart shaved in to the hair on its rear end - that is how you make a horse handsome).

And so that was it...a rather typical roadtrip, getting horribly lost, entering a different county and getting overly excited by things normal people wouldn't even blink an eye at!

Thanks fo reading!

Ellie and Sarah xXx

What is Ludgershall without BIKE NIGHT!

Happy 2011! We decided that the best way to possibly celebrate the new year would be to head off to the North, in search of Piddington via Horton-Cum-Studley, and venture into lands of equally humorous names on the way! (Also- this blog is brought to you as a joint effort as I (Sarah) am still round at Ellie's house!)

As we drove out of drizzly Oxford, we soon came across a community centre which Sarah had previously been to, and as she remembered the park out front, it seemed a fabulous opportunity for a quick play...or so we thought! As we drove up to the community centre, we were very ready to drive away quickly, as it seemed likely a man would appear and tell us to get off his land, shooting at us with a shotgun...as this did not happen, we did practice our, 'o, this isn't the right place' faces. (There was infact a park there, we were just overwhelmed by the feeling that we didn't belong there..)

As we drove through the Oxfordshire countryside, it was good to be back in the countryside, and we fast approached Horton-Cum-Studley. Now, what one expects to find in Horton-Cum-Studley, no one is quite sure, saying that, i'm pretty sure it wasn't what we expected, and it came and went, as fast as...well...Ginge. (Ah...Ginge, we should go back there soon and see if they've put a new sign up...)

And so we ventured on, reaching Boarstall...by accident really :P and came across Boarstall Tower, well atleast a sign for Boarstall Tower, not really being able to see it through the trees, but we are lead to believe it is quite a magical place! (It was like a castle but it's only open in the summer, perhaps a future roadtrip destination?)

And so on to Piddington, and as we drove down some quiet roads, we came across, what can only be described as, some lungers... fairly old lungers, wearing berets. Made us laugh. Piddington was not far behind, and it appears Piddington has a different climate to the rest of Oxfordshire, as they appeared to have snow, and if it wasn't raining, we would have made a Piddington snowman, well Ellie would have, don't know how bothered Sarah was. (I was bothered, I was definitely bothered...I was so bothered that I looked about to see if there was somewhere to park whilst we made our snowman but sadly there was not :( )

Next on our journey, was old lands once passed, Ludgershall, which hosts the annual BIKE NIGHT (BIKE NIGHT!!!!) which we once, inadvertently came across, it was quite a different place to be without 100 burly bikers (BIKE NIGHT!!!!). However, we did come across three men walking at least 15 greyhounds between them, and as a result we have determined that the people of Ludgershall are hardcore Bikers with a passion for dog racing...how we long for the day that we come across a Ludgershall local (BIKE NIGHT!!!!). On leaving Ludgershall, we went to cross a bridge, however this was closed due to being weak, and so we swiftly turned around to find an alternative route. Driving away from the bridge, we saw a huge lorry drive over the bridge...did he make it to the other side, or was he dicing with death one too many times? We'll never know! (We would have risked the weak bridge ourselves but funnily enough we quite value our lives...and I wouldn't have wanted to damage my car...)

Heading out of Ludgershall towards our old friend Brill, we had a FedEx man right up our bum! (Seriously, he needed to back off!!! Never mind that we were going 40 mph down a national speed limit section...) How rude! He followed us all the way to Brill, we suspect he also wanted to see this fabulous village and the windmill! Either that, or he was just doing his job... Brill had not changed in the 8 months or so since we were last there, and they were still looking for part-time firefighters, if anyone is interested! We just hope they haven't had any unfortunate christmas light related incidents...(if uni doesn't work out I reckon we should go live in Brill and become part-time firefighters)

And so, heading back to Oxford, but our trip was far from complete. We felt the urge for some custard, so headed to Ambrosden in search of some! Unfortunatley, they didn't have any...who'd have thought! However, they did have an RAF base, which is always very exciting for us non-military type. However, not half as exciting as what was to come - a sign telling us about Real Brill Oldies - the local radio station, and so quickly tuning in (87.9fm, for those of you in that area interested) we heard the likes of Donovan and some other music we didn't recognise, but danced along to none the less! Our final stop was Honeyburge, which consisted of exactly 4 houses, one of them being honey coloured - who'd have thought! And as we entered Oxford, we entered our meaningful conversation (about death and funerals), as we passed a crematorium (hence how we got started on our deep and meaningful talk about death and funerals), however, it took Ellie a while to realise the signs pointing to the crematorium, was not to a village called crematorium! (goodness knows why Ellie thought we were talking about death up until this point!)

And so to end our first road trip of 2011, we went to Burger King drive thru, Ellie pleased that she did not make a new years resolution to lose weight, and Sarah ignoring hers! (It's called selective fast-food memory syndrome...it causes me to forget my new year's resolution when near fast-food restaurants, it's a serious condition!)

Laterz,

Brambley-Apple and Gallienniii

xxx