Weekend with Bron

Bron came to visit over the weekend! She arrived Thursday late afternoon on a bus from London. We just hung out and caught up that evening... since we haven't seen each other since October, there was plenty to talk about... and we practically didn't stop talking the whole weekend!

On Friday, after a lazy morning, we drove up to Hereford, about 33 miles northwest of Gloucester. Hereford is a cathedral city that lies on the banks of the Wye River in the county of Herefordshire. We started out our visit at The Antique Tea Room for lunch... very us!
Then we walked down to the cathedral that dates from the 1079AD.
Then we strolled along the banks of the Wye River overlooking the cityscape.
We crossed back over the Wye River on the pedestrian-only Victoria Bridge, built in 1989.We only spent a few hours in all in Hereford, since I wanted to get home before Jeff arrived home, but it was still a fun day out.

On Saturday, the three of us drove up to our favourite village in the Cotswolds, Stow-on-the-Wold. The day was filled with browsing in boutiques... luckily we didn't do too much damage on our wallets. We also ate lunch at The Old Bakery Tea Room ran by a Christian couple.
We then spent an hour in Bourton-on-the-Water.

On Sunday we went to the Gloucester Food Show... not to eat or buy food... but to feast my eyes on the gorgeous James Martin. He is a (gorgeous) professional chef and host of Saturday Morning Kitchen, which airs live for an hour and a half on Saturday mornings. (Yes, Jeff is very aware of my crush.) Get this! Just as we walked in and turned into a row of stalls, James and his entourage were headed our direction. I couldn't believe it. Our eyes met.... twice!... and my knees melted! I seriously became dizzy and needed to brace myself against Bronnie... she says I was being dramatic... whatever. We had tickets to see gorgeous James in the kitchen theatre where he cooked for about 45 minutes. He is so much more relaxed and funny in person than on Saturday Morning Kitchen.
These are the different foods he cooked: fish goujons, fish rarebit, a soft-boiled egg on something (I forget... guess I wasn't concentrating too hard on the food this time), medium-cooked beef tenderloin and a quick summer pudding topped with a sugar nest.

Giving James a quick peck... hey, at least I can pretend!

Le Creuset... a must have in any kitchen... yet to buy mine, but I will... as soon as I finally decide which colour to buy!

Sadly, Bronnie's visit quickly came to an end. We took her to the bus station to catch the 13:00 bus back to London. However, I'll probably get to see her again in a few weeks... along with two other Munich friends, Kari and Inna.