Get The Ball Rolling

For anyone who doesn't know, me and Ric are going to India! We've got 7 weeks to go before we fly off again and as with every trip, we have lots to sort out before we go. 

I've just got back from a lovely and very productive trip to Huddersfield to be reunited with my Ric. It was a long four days without him after living joined at the hip for a year! 

We set up camp on his couch and got lots of things done:

• We started our visa applications for India. You can do it all online, even the payment, which is great, especially after all the trouble we had getting our visas arranged for Korea.
• We booked a hostel in Delhi and an airport transfer for when we arrive. Usually I'm happy to just turn up to a place with nowhere to stay, but not at 2am after an 8 hour flight.
• We plotted out some places we wanted to visit. I think we're quite unique in how we go about planning our trips (and by unique I mean weird). Rather than reading guide books and studying maps, Ric and I just look for photos of places that look nice, copy them into Paint, and then join them up like a dot-to-dot to make our own map. 
• We booked flights from Manchester to London as we have to fly out of Heathrow. I've never done an internal flight in England before, we're going to be sat there in our hippy pants and sandals among all the business men!
• We booked round trip flights to Nepal for our Everest trip. We've decided not to book the trek in advance as you end up paying twice as much as you'd pay through an agent inside the country (a lesson I learned on my Machu Picchu trek!) Treks to Base Camp are about £600-800 if you book online, so we'll have to see what the prices are like in Nepal. Of course it could be that all the treks are fully booked when we get there and we won't even be able to do it, which would be a shame but we've decided it's a risk we're happy to take. If we don't get to climb Mt. Everest, I'll be happy just to see it. 

After we'd done all that, we were feeling so productive that we decided we needed a rest, and went boating along the canals with Ric's parents. Here are some snaps from our first week home:

Wedding of the Year! 

One of the main reasons I came home, my beautiful friends Lauren and Paul got married after 8 years together. 

 Congratulations Mr and Mrs Chambers!!!

 It's great to see my glamorous friends again.

 Ric took me on a walk to Hardcastle Crags. 

We went for a summer evening drive up to Huddersfield's Castle Hill.

 Hebden Bridge, where we had high tea by the side of the canal.

 Canal boating.

 Ric and his Dad working the locks.

Me and Ric on the canal into Sheffield.