Song For Europe fever! Also, Lancaster

I had a fantastic night last night. Charlie's brother Matt and his family came round, along with their nephew Tom. We felt a little ashamed when they turned up as they'd all dressed as a different European cliché and we hadn't made any effort in that respect. The paella was irritatingly disappointing as it wasn't as flavoursome as last time and burnt a little on the bottom, but still got eaten. Thankfully, Matt brought round a stew that he'd made which was so amazingly delicious that, if it wouldn't have been a weird and unsettlingly creepy faux pas, I would've liked to have rubbed all over myself. Eurovision voting was predictably poor and obviously politically motivated, and the drinking game we played was ambitious and potentially dangerous. All in all, a pretty good do.

Lads

Costumes from right to left: Greek, Russian, Northern.

Had to get up at half 6 this morning as my wonderful and sexy friend Charlie offered to drive me to Preston. He was off to my old company's golf tournament and getting a lift meant a much cheaper and shorter train journey to Lancaster. We drove through the countryside via Skipton, which looked incredibly beautiful under the overcast sky and made me think it must be breathtaking in the sun. All drystone walls and crumbling farm buildings misted in the low-level cloud, the hills we drove over could have been the subject of literally hundreds of gorgeously mysterious picture postcards. If only I could have taken some photos.

Having driven through Preston to the train station, I'm glad I didn't decide to visit it on this trip. Having suffered from deindustrialisation and deprivation through the last century, it doesn't look like a place that has recovered well, and although all this is unfair to say without having spent any time exploring round the city, I don't think its a place I will visit in my life for leisure.

Lancaster isn't a place I'd planned to visit, but the train I was initially going to get from Harrogate to Kendal was long with several changes, so I decided to split it up with an extra stop. As soon as I arrived, I walked up to Lancaster Castle to look around. Entry to the castle is by guided tour only as it is still a functioning crown court, and luckily I arrived two minutes before the first of the day started.

The other people on the tour irritated me immensely. They all seemed to know each other and, due to their private jokes and group-inspired excitability, proceeded to, for lack of a better phrase, dick about. One of the women was a historian and couldn't resist letting the tour guide know as soon as possible, as well as bringing it up on several additional occasions after that. One of the guys, an American, kept playing "creepy" sounds on his phone to try and scare the women. His friend kept dropping a teaspoon. Awesomes.