Ashwell, Manningtree & B-rad’s departure...

The bus ride to London was long, but 5 1/2 hours later we arrived. Our plan was to head to Ashwell for a few days just to relax after our long week of partying. Ashwell is a small town about an hours train ride from London with only a thousand or so residents. One of my dad’s mates Allan owns a house there and said it was cool if we stayed there a while.

Our time in Ashwell was boring the say the most. But we couldn’t complain we were looking for somewhere to relax that’s exactly what we did. I don’t have much to say about this part of our trip other than it was great to chillax.

From Ashwell Brad wanted to go and see some family friends in Manningtree, near Essex. So off we went again back on the train to London then out to Manningtree. They were very good to us, cooking breakfasts, dinners and giving us a nice place to sleep for a while, and I can’t forget the beers too. They also took us out to see their part of the world which was interesting and quite different from other places I’d visited, from the small traditional English pubs to the luscious green fields to the babbling brooks. In some places it was very surreal.

After a few days of chillaxing there with Brad it was time to leave again, this time was the big departure for Brad, time for him to head back home to Sydney. Back on the train again, next stop, Heathrow Airport. So after 2 weeks of B-rad, the awesome times we had were coming to an end. He was very excited to be heading home and said that 2 months was more than enough for his travels.

It was time to say our goodbyes and good lucks and then he was gone… Lining up in a line for security checks that was no shorter than a few hundred meters long! I’m not sure how long it took you to get through Brad but it seemed like it was a bit of a wait!

Now that I was by myself again I had planned to stay in London for a few nights and meet up with my aunt and cousin, who were also here on holiday from Australia.