Giles and Haraki's UK road trip

[Giles]

Haraki, Ayumi and me are travelling around England and a bit of Scotland for a few days.

I'll try and get a few photos posted up here, but it's going to be pretty full on.

Today, we have to do 350 miles in this

[Guest]

you saying hi to Geo when you reach bonny Scotland,,have a safe trip

[Giles]

No, we are too frantic with too much to do and selfishly, I'd rather see him with just me and P..

[rocket]

safe trip guys!

– rocket iphone posting --

[Guest]

@Giles:

No, we are too frantic with too much to do and selfishly, I'd rather see him with just me and P..

fair comment,,,have a blast,,im back up there in October,,,,

[Megatron1505]

Safe trip guys, and have fun. Looking forward to seeing what you get upto 

If you're entering Scotland from the Eastern side I highly recommend Edinburgh, and on the way there in Northern England there are some amazing Castles and coastline just north of Newcastle. Dunstanburgh, Alnwick and Bamburgh are the best ones, and all basically in a straight line off the A1.

[Tripleterror]

You're a mind reader Mega, I think G said he was going to Alnwick !

[Megatron1505]

Used for some exterior shots of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies if memory serves me correctly 

[Finn666]

enjoy the trip yall…cant wait for updates

[dizco]

been to alnwick castle last spring, pretty cool place to visit

[hectic]

Giles, you have to stock up on these for the journey - a critical part of the cultural immersion:

[elclintor]

Make me proud G.

Do it right!

[Simon]

Tips - M6 toll road and West Moreland services near Carlisle, have fun up there.

[bertoni]

@hectic:

Giles, you have to stock up on these for the journey - a critical part of the cultural immersion:

That's right Hectic. Eat cornish pasty, drink loads of fizzy pop and burp into each others faces. It was quite the tradition round our way.

[Giles]

I'm the designated driver, so not many photos today.  We arrived in Carlisle about 15 mins ago.  We took a detour through the English Lake District, judging by the stereophonic ooh's, ah's, wow's, coos' and shutter clicking, it was a well worth addition to the otherwise pretty boring journey….

First pit stop Warwick Services on the M40

Haraki was obviously entranced by much of the Midlands

Keswick for coffee before the final assault on Carlisle

Tomorrow it is meeting in Carlisle in the morning, then North East to Alnwick to take a trip around House of Hardy factory and museum.  Hardy is the quintessential English fishing tackle maker and Haraki (not me) really wants to go and have a look.  After that we'll take in a bit of the Riever country on the way to Galashiels in prep for a meeting with Will@Aero on Weds.

[rocket]

very nice, have fun guys!

– rocket iphone posting --

[Madame Buttonfly]

@dizco:

been to alnwick castle last spring, pretty cool place to visit

Alnwick is great.  Why on earth did I agree to stay behind? 

[Jpo1932]

Is that Ayumi holding H's jacket? xD

[Madame Buttonfly]

@Jpo1932:

Is that Ayumi holding H's jacket? xD

Yes, I think she's holding Haraki-san's zip sweat which she had to borrow because the weather keeps changing - warm and sunny one minute, windy and cold the next!

[Giles]

This morning we met with Giles from Chapman Bags.  http://www.chapmanbags.com/ChapmanBagsSite/pages/home/default.asp

We have decided to do a few collab bags with these guys.  Haraki argues that we chose them because of their provenance, their attention to detail, their construction philosophy and their supreme quality, I argue that we chose them because the factory manager is called Giles and is an all round cool dude.

This is Haraki playing with the Clicker, so called because when it cuts out the leather shapes (with 2 tonnes of pressure) it clicks

Bags in various stages of construction

Haraki getting close and personal with bag design

A few patterns hanging around

And what was amazing is that we took some sample denim for Giles and the crew to look at.  And before we knew what had happened they'd made a feckin bag for us to look at

We then drove across country to Alnwick, basically following Hadrians Wall

After being given a factory tour at the House od Hardy, we needed fodder.  We decided against the chip butty

And had the Haddock and Chips instead

Landy in Alnwick

Haraki and Ayumi, can't resist a bit of Lion Heart in front of Alnwick Castle

And Ayumi cant resist running down the beach at Alnmouth to touch the North Sea

Finally, Haraki and Ayumi do Hogwarts