Notts and Trash TV

I was so excited to go up to Nottingham, less for the Robin Hood and tourism and more for the people! Katie and Dan collected me from the station and took me back to their place. We had nothing in mind other than just hanging out and maybe going to see Major Oak and possibly an art exhibit at the University. So we did both of those but also watched a LOT of trash TV. I was introduced to "Bank of Mum and Dad", "Don't Tell The Bride" and I introduced Katie to "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Bachelorette Party: Las Vegas." Poor Dan took it all in stride. I would also post videos but really, nothing beats the episodes that we watched and it would do the show injustice to just show a random clip. But trust me, there were some unfortunate people on ALL of these shows.

Of course, there were legitimate things that happened this weekend. As I said, on Saturday, we took advantage of the gorgeous day to head out to the University of Nottingham, through the ghetto that is Hyson Green, to see an exhibit of paper. I'll get to that. The University was hosting a family day and there were a ton of families and children and games and magician shows and such. We found the two cafes lacking and decided to get some hamburgers from a BBQ stand. Delicious. Such a great choice. The views were beautiful- and of course, it didn't help that the weather was splendid. The exhibits were also wonderful. The first was mainly archeological finds and our favorite part was reading through the guest book. The other one was all made out of paper. Yet, as simple as it sounds, these were fabulous pieces of work. There was a ballet costume made out of tissue paper hanging from the ceiling. There was a map of the world made out of the currency of the world (So the US was made up of a $1 bill, the EU was made up of various denominations of Euros, etc.). My heart hurt a little seeing some books cut up but the pieces that they wer amde into were beautiful. It makes you think a lot more about how a simple, small piece of paper can be used in so many different ways and how important it is to save and conserve and recycle.

On the second day, we went out to Major Oak, in the middle of Sherwood Forest. It sounds a lot more impressive that it is. The woods were beautiful and once we got away from the crowds, very quiet and peaceful. The Oak was pretty cool, especially in how it was propped up by large beams but it looks more like the tree Rafiki lives in ("Lion King") than where Robin Hood and his men or the Green Man spent time. 

Katie and I also spent some time at the Sherwood Manor, apparently the place for drag-out fights between the locals. We cooked some dinner, had some take-out, watched "Morse" (after I made sure I didn't need to know anything about cricket to understand the episode), sat out in the garden, just relaxed. It was a wonderful weekend and totally needed before heading back out to another week of sitting into libraries and research centers. Thanks, Katie and Dan, for being the hosts with the mosts!