Arriving back in England, I headed for the next housesit I had lined up, this time near Leicester. The couple I was housesitting for turned out to be really lovely, and they also left me the contact details of their best friend, should I need anything. I really enjoyed this house as it had its own little private garden, was only a ten minute walk from the village and supermarket, had a very cosy lounge, and best of all the kitchen was fantastic! The lady was an ex-chef and so I found her kitchen gloriously equipt with everything (including a fancy kitchen-aid) I was also here for over a month, so I attempted a large number of recipes in this time and had a great time experimenting in the kitchen.
My first recipe to attempt was a traditional French onion soup, which I was pleased to say turned out rather delicious, though I decided the next time I make it, I would use belgian beer instead of wine as I think it would turn out even nicer.
I also continued my morning runs that I had started on my last housesit, and was quite proud that by the time this housesit had finished, I had gone from running for bursts of two minutes, to bursts of ten! It might not sound like much, but it felt like quite an achievement. The area I was staying in was called Markfield and was a rather cute (and small) village, made prettier by the turning of the leaves as summer faded away and we entered autumn with full force. At times I was running in frost so thick the grass turned completely white! Luckily the heating was fairly decent, and there were lots of blankets, so I didn't freeze too much.
My charge for this housesit was a little old cat called Nigella, and she was adorable. As soon as you sat down on the couch she would beeline for you and snuggle onto your lap, quite content to stay there for hours (and look very put out if you moved). Unfortunately Nigella was a very old cat, and became quite sick which made this otherwise lovely stay quite stressful. I ended up needing to take her to the vets, and force-feed her medication which was quite awful, as well as a rather stressful but necessary talk with the owners on the phone about worst case scenarios (which in the end I happily didn't have to deal with).
With being so close to Leicester I took full advantage and had a few daytrips there to explore the city. I didn't plan much apart from knowing I wanted to see the King Richard exibition (the famous king under the car park). Aside from this I just wandered happily, getting lost and enjoying the pretty streets.
I was lucky that the first day I went there, there was a large vegetable market on, and as it was autumn the pumpkins were out and looking festive! It was rather exciting to see orange pumpkins, as I'd only seen them in movies before (it's only possible to get squash in NZ). I decided that I'd buy one later and maybe try my hand at carving one as Halloween was just around the corner, but thought I'd be best to buy it later as pumpkins are heavy!
My next port of call was the King Richard III Visitor centre, built on the spot that he was found. To give some background on this, King Richard was killed in the famous battle of Bosworth in 1485, and the whereabouts of his remains were unknown. Legend told that they were thrown in the river, however more recently people became to question this, and a few researchers found reason to believe he was in fact buried in the long-destroyed Grey Friars church.
In 2011 these researches then approached the council about searching for these remains in Greyfriars carpark, and the council agreed as although finding the king's' remains were unlikely, they were interested in finding the old church.
Within days of the excavation they had found not only the old foundations of the church, but also a skeleton with battle wounds and a curved spine. Dating of the remains found them to be around the time Richard lived, of a man around the same age as Richard (early thirties) and the final piece of evidence; DNA analysis matched the mitochondrial DNA through female descendants of his sister. With this irrefutable proof, it was publically declared that the body of Richard III had been found. Interestingly he clearly did suffer from scoliosis which would have been visible (and given rise to the popular idea that he was a hunchback). He was buried hastily in a grave too small for him (causing his head to be propped downwards onto his chest) and with his arms crossed in front of him (perhaps due to being tied). Richard III was exhumed and reburied in full ceremony at Leicester Cathedral (minus his feet which were lost in the 1800s when a cellar was extended, cutting into his remains and again driving home how very lucky we were to find anything at all of him).
My favourite room in the museum was the original dig site which was overlaid with glass so you could see down into the excavated trenches. Using lights, Richard's skeleton was superimposed into the grave, arms crossed and all. It was also interesting to learn about the wounds he sustained, a break to his cheekbone, a cut to the back of his neck entering his brain (the fatal wound, and considered cowardly as it took him from behind) and a number of (thankfully) post-mortem wounds to his torso and buttocks. Ouch!
My next stop in history was to the Guildhall, built in 1390 and used for over 600 years, I had it all to myself to wander! I also rather enjoyed the enormous pumpkin that had pride of place for the coming Halloween.
Speaking of Halloween, I decided to make my own Jack-o'-Lantern like the ones you see in American movies - after all, if one could buy them so cheaply in the shops and with nothing better to do, why not! After watching a quick youtube tutorial (thank you internet) I set to work! I soon found that Pumpkins were a lot more difficult than I expected to core, full of sticky, stringy membrane which refused to to come out with the spoon I was using and I ended up resorting to ripping it out with my hands. Messy but satisfied, this was my end result.
Before I knew it, it was my birthday and Joy and her partner were coming up for the evening! During the day I decided to treat myself and made myself a fresh pizza but somehow food poisoned myself and ended up rather sick for the rest of the day (what exactly made me ill, I never worked out). When Joy arrived bearing gifts and beautiful food, we unfortunately had to wait for the next day to enjoy a lovely lunch instead of dinner.
Having Joy there, with flowers and chocolate and beautiful bottle of bubbly left me feeling very spoiled and was my best birthday since I had left New Zealand.
We started with bruschetta, followed by pan-fried duck in cream and red peppercorn sauce with a side of potato dauphinoise and finished with chocolate mousse (all washed down with the beautiful bubbly of course!)
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