Slept in on Thursday and took advantage of the time to do some much needed laundry. CW left with Andy and Malcolm to play lawn bowls at Eaton Park and I hung out at the house with Shoma and her friend Anna. Dan returned from the laundromat and we drove to park to meet up with the lawn bowlers. CG had disappeared into town and reappeared later to commandeer us to Hinckley for our debut at the Beave...read the rest of this entry and more in adrienne's diary.

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I'm sick. Ugh. Realizing that I'm going to be sniffly and feverish and cranky all day, I decide to spare everyone my company and hop off into town. I buy more drugs at Boots, drink caffeine (although it's not doing an ounce of good), write more postcards, and wander around until it's time to head off to Leicestershire. Adrienne has thankfully been stowing tissue in her bag, and offers me sh...read the rest of this entry and more in chrisg's diary.

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Woke up on the sofa bed at Staff's, which is just like the red sofa love seat bed we had in Oakland. It was almost nine a.m. CG was awake too. Staff took off for work. We met him at the venue and loaded in the gear, then picked up some breakfast at Cameo's, where CG and Dan decided to eat true English breakfasts and CW and I opted for omelettes. We drove to Shoma's in Norwich and when we got ther...read the rest of this entry and more in adrienne's diary.

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Colchester was a fun show. I think it was the biggest crowd we've played to outside of the Garage so far. We played with two really good bands, *Teevo and Beat Glider. *Teevo were really fun to watch, and rocked out. Beat Glider were more moody and atmospheric, and great as well. They said they haven't played a show since August, which is either a lie or I need to practice a lot more. Dan ...read the rest of this entry and more in chrisg's diary.

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Woke up at Colin's in our own room. The sun was shining. Martin made toast and poured the OJ and we hit the road by 9. The spider bite that I got on my stomach at the beginning of the tour is finally fading--I suspect a spider from our old apartment in Oakland hitched a ride in my suitcase. It was a 6 hour drive, with stops at two service turn-offs, one that we had visited on the way to Newcastle ...read the rest of this entry and more in adrienne's diary.

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Early start again. Toady is our 'big' drive down from Newcastle (at the top of England) to Colchester (about an hour or so east of London). Funny thing is, our big drive is 6 hours, which is on the low end of our usual drive times in the US. So we're not too daunted. Colchester is a beautiful town, and reportedly the first recorded town in England. The downtown is a lot of small winding str...read the rest of this entry and more in chrisg's diary.

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The alarm went off around 8 or 9. I went downstairs and Mike was making tea. We mobilized to Manchester around 10:30, taking the streetcar after walking through Stretford, past the brick houses and the shops. Matt continued on after Piccadilly to the the train station to return to Chester--he'll come to San Francisco this summer I hope, though we may have made him wary with the story of the 5 lb. ...read the rest of this entry and more in adrienne's diary.

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We got an early start today to Manchester, as we stopped in Wrexham to eat lunch and pick up Matt, a Friend of Adrienne From University (for the purposes of future diary entries, I shall use the abbreviation FAFU). We arrive for a late, but delicious, lunch courtesy of Matt's parents, who are surprised that we're not bigger. We chat around the lunch table, and get to sample two yummy desserts ...read the rest of this entry and more in chrisg's diary.

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The travel clock alarm went off at 8, or maybe it was 7. Whatever time it was, I wanted to sleep more. I decided to force my contacts into my eyes and felt a little bit more awake. CG and I loaded up the van while the other 2 were in computer land. Owain wasn't awake yet so we left a thank you note with him on the top floor, above the sun tanning salon. Leaving Cardiff was a real challenge, as all...read the rest of this entry and more in adrienne's diary.

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As I've described earlier, there are many differences between things in the US and the UK. There are the obvious ones (accent, driving, diet), and then are are ones more subtle. The one I'd like to talk about now is the absence of the sanitary paper toilet seat, or 'pull up then pull down's as we call them. Actually, we've found that there are many states in the US where these are not provide...read the rest of this entry and more in chrisg's diary.

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