On a working holiday wednesday holds special importance; this is the day off. With all of Derbyshire (in a 60 mile radius!) at our finger tips there was some debate as to which direction to head off in and what to do when we got there. In the end the group was split into two with the majority going for a walk which by the sounds of it was a bit further than most has anticipated. Rebecka, James, Anna, Julia and myself headed off to Nottingham to investigate the worlds best city. Anna and Julia seemed determind to waste the day shopping so we left them in the center and went to the castle. Obviously for those that live in Nottingham the lie in the last sentence will be glaring; the castle burnt down many years ago and all that is on the site is a stately home style building. Inside we found various exhibites or varying interest but manged to spend a while wondering out, some it looking for the exit! We watched a short video on the history of Nottingham which completly failed to mention the man himself: Robin Hood. After takingin the fine views from the hill top it was off to a Weatherspoons for a cup of tea, and in my case a pint of water (this seemed to amuse Rebecka enormously!). Water and tea finished off we went to meet the other girls, who had decided that they hadn't shopped nearly as much as they needed so we arranged to meet at the end of the day and the terrible tri went to the Lock and Lace for a bite to eat, the normal soup and sandwich deal. Cruically this became the venue for my first pint, which is where my memory might not be too reliable!! After this the Brewhouse yard museum catch our eye, but we couldn't find anything to do with beer making inside and so we dropped into the Old Trip for another pint of fine Nottingham beer. For reasons I'd much rather be able to remember Rebecka started telling us all about the Ann Summers parties she has been to, after perhaps more details than James and I really needed we decided that we had better go and investigate the Nottingham establishment. On the way we were fooled into going into the Lace center which is possibly the worlds smallest museum. Ann Summers turned into quite an education for the blokes but the less said the better! Feeling like we should teach the women something for the day we went to Boots for a quick explaination, and demonstration, of the 'checkout girl game'. This is a game which arose out of many hours spent tyring to get to the front of queues in Sainsbury's with little to do but look around. Thus the queue to join is the which has the most attractive checkout girl at the end, so at least there is something to look at while you queue. In Boots Helen won the game and was subjected to my most charming two pint 'Hello there', all to no avail!. With the time ticking away we dashed to Tesco for beer and wine before meeting Anna and Julia (who had managed to buy almost nothing, a sort of slow spending competition has obviously occured) and heading back to base.
The walk had obviously gone on a while longer than expected, judging by the time that the others arrived home but after some swift shower and changing we were ready to hit the pub for tea. We exchanged stories of the day and drank beer until people started to fall asleep when it seemed only polite to move back to base for yet more drinking. The evening we tried a few word games which everyone but Carol and myself seemed to have played before which put us on the back foot, much to the amusement of the others. I may have propagated the mad Englishman image, having been challenged to climb underneath the kitchen table from one end to the other I strolled in, leapt on the table and started to scramble under it. Julia was in there making a hot drink, and hadn't heard the previous conversation, and seemed somewhat bemused to watch me puffing and panting while I climbed under the table!! Still I'd liek to say that I managed it with little or no style! Tired and drunk I soon went to bed, however it seems that the Rebecka, James and Rob were wondering who could stay up the latest so things went on for sometime after I departed. In the morning there were vague accusations from Rebecka that the lads had tried to put her into the bin, but nothing was ever confirmed!