Monday, 27 June 2011

Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard visit Robert Downey Jr and a WDW Woman Vs Wild Interlude

I'm back, having spent two days camping in the wilds on a rugged Welsh mountainside, enduring the elements, eating whatever food I was able to scramble together, surrounded by wild beasts. A case of Woman Vs Wild. The similarities between my camping trip with Jake Gyllenhaal and Bear Grylls' foray into an Icelandic glacier is obvious. Although, to be fair, camping over Hay on Wye on a green hillside, popping in to bookshops, eating pub grub, looking at the sheep and wild horses, staring at the ice in a drink, while being bombarded with heatwave temperatures, is a tad different from what awaited Jake.

Bear has revealed today 'We had a jumbo jet blown sideways across the airport, whilst I was 5,000-feet up a mountain.' Pah! What's that compared to having your hand licked by a tubby spaniel when you're minding your own business and putting up your tent?


The picture here is courtesy of IHJ and shows Jake and Peter Sarsgaard outside the house of our much loved Robert Downey Jr on 12 June.

Interlude - Woman Vs Wild

Over the last couple of days I've been roughing it* (*actually, not really roughing it), on a motorbike camping tour of the sunsoaked Welsh Marches. This being the Welsh borders it did of course rain at one point but it stayed hot while it did it. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year and it brought the grockels out to the Cotswolds - first stop Bibury.



Nest was Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, a lived in castle full of Tudor and Stuart furnishings (some belonging to Sir Francis Drake). But most famously this is the castle where Edward II came a cropper in the 1320s.


Tintern Abbey not only had a beautiful abbey against a breathtaking backdrop of cliffs and trees and a river, it had cricket.



The famous Hay on Wye from the campsite.


Other places we visited included the beautiful and remote Black Mountains, White Castle, the most hidden and unfindable castle in Britain and Llanthony Priory.





The pictures in this section are by WDW.
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17 comments:

  1. mermon27 June 2011 at 22:00

    Kate! Incredibly beautiful pictures. And your adventure seems much more appealing and entertaining to me that Iceland's one. Especially after last information Bryll gave us! We are lucky that Jake survived that:)
    I'm sure that this particular episode will be the most watched from all the others.
    Nice pic with Jake and Peter. I wish to see Robert with them. I imagine, guys had great time together.

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  2. Wet Dark and Wild27 June 2011 at 22:05

    Thanks so much, Mermon! It was a wonderful little break - and so hot!

    I'd love to see RDJ work with Jake and Peter too - it's good they see him :)

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  3. Susan27 June 2011 at 22:20

    Really lovely pictures from your interlude, Kate. I continue to be educated in lots of ways as I had to consult Google to find out what a grockel is and what "came a cropper" means. I stopped short of reading up on Edward II, though. :) Should I ever get to visit the U.K., I'll try to be a proper grockel and have my English-to-American dictionary handy at all times.

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  4. Anonymous27 June 2011 at 23:31

    I love, love, love your interludes. If the gods are kind, I will visit these places next year...or the year after? : )

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  5. Anonymous27 June 2011 at 23:33

    Edward II. Was he Richard III's bro? York?

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  6. Anonymous27 June 2011 at 23:35

    Oops. Answered my own question. Plantagenet. Bad king. But Didn't Richard III also have a bro, Edward who was king?

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  7. Anonymous28 June 2011 at 06:10

    wdw you sure are a brave woman. I bet Jake would have been SO impressed with the lengths you went to survive the hard conditions. What he did in comparison pales to what you went through. I am glad you survived that spaniel.

    I liked the pic of Jake and Peter at RDJ

    sweetpea

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  8. Unknown28 June 2011 at 07:32

    Jake, Peter and RDJ in one room together. Oh Lord have mercy! I wish I could have been there.
    Wonder if they were talking about "Born to Run" and how Peter can fit Jake and Robert in it?

    Nice picture from your interlude. The green grass looks very neat around all those ruins. Glad you survived those hard conditions. Pub food can be tricky at times!

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  9. Jules28 June 2011 at 08:10

    Wonderful pictures of your adventure, Kate! I'm sure Jake would appreciate your surviving skills :-)

    I'm hoping the Man vs Wild episode will be uploaded immediately, I can't see it on TV in Italy :-(((

    And as regards to Jake and Peter and RDJ what more can I say that hasn't been said already? I would love to see them work together, the three of them!

    I haven't posted in a while but I check this place every morning for updates and you never fail to make me smile and feel better with Jake news so thanks!

    And have a good day, y'all.

    Jules

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  10. Wet Dark and Wild28 June 2011 at 10:32

    Morning everyone! Back at work... sobs...

    Thank you all so much for the lovely comments and for putting up with going off one one of my interludes.

    That's so funny, Susan! Sounds like your English English is coming along a treat :D

    Thanks so much 23:31! Love to have a name to know you by :)

    Hi there 23:33 :) Edward II was something like Richard III's great great greatgrandfather. There's a good hundred years between them. Richard III's younger brother was Edward IV, the last of the old Plantagenet line.

    Hi Sweetpea! I et he'd be very impressed :)

    Wouldn't that be fantastic, Mrs JG?! Yep, pub grub's a hardship but I managed to work through it - a lot of it.

    Good to see you, Jules! It won't be aired here either but let's keep our fingers crossed :)

    Have a good day everyone!

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  11. Claire28 June 2011 at 14:05

    Hi all

    Long time no comment - just completed my first year at uni, with 68% overall so very very pleased! Edward II was killed in dubious circumstances by his wife Isabelle and her lover as they wanted to take over the throne in her son Edward III's name as he was too young to rule. Also the thought was that he was a bit 'Brokeback mountain' although it was never proved...


    Nice to see Jake out and about with Peter and Robert, less face pet the better - is it going to be an annual pet do you think? (hopes not!)
    xx Claire

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  12. 23:3128 June 2011 at 14:15

    WDW, Edward IV, Richard's brother, was older than Richard III. Edward V was one of the two young princes Richard was accused of murdering, tho I blame Buckingham. Edward IV's daughter married the Tudor who defeated Richard III @ Bosworth and started the whole Tudor line of succession.

    Back to Jake. Love knowing he and Robert are still friends. In the pictures Jake and Peter didn't look too happy, but now that we know where they were I can understand how intrusive it might have been to have photographers "catch" them at someone's house. That is tacky.

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  13. Susan28 June 2011 at 16:06

    I so agree with that, 23:31, - "tacky" is too kind a word. And yet, I like knowing that they still stay in touch and I like the thought of the possibility that there may be discussions of working together. I don't like intrusiveness but I like to be informed.

    By the way, I didn't mean to initiate a history lesson! :)

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  14. Anonymous28 June 2011 at 18:13

    I think both Jake and Robert have said in one way or the other that they will be friends for life.
    Work and such makes it so they can't hang out together a lot but there are phones and text and such things. Am sure Jake keeps in touch with all of his friends that way. We might not see Jake and Adam hanging out together for long periods of time and then..boom...there they are.
    Jake has always seemed to remain friends and in touch with many people from his school days and a number of movies, and people he has met along the way. Says good things about him.

    Annie

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  15. Wet Dark and Wild28 June 2011 at 20:31

    Hi Claire! Good to see you back and congratulations on your first year! Sounds like you're on course :) Oh an annual pet - please no!

    Hi 23: 31 :D It is tacky but how good to know that Jake and Peter are meeting with RDJ is so good! Sorry, I got younger and older muddled up there :D

    I like that too, Susan, really good to know :) I like how history pops up, until Jake beats it back down again!

    Hi Annie! You're so right - Jake has good friends and they stay with him for years - that's got to be good :)

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  16. Uli28 June 2011 at 20:47

    LOL, what a great post!! You are so brave to face the elements and the spaniel like this!!! Glad you survived like Jake did - although compared to your adventures his definitely was a piece of cake!!

    Had to google "grockel", too... :D
    Couldn't find out what the crocker thing means, though...

    What a lovely trip that must have been! And how nice to see Bibury again so soon, having been there not too long ago myself!! Was it still crowded with Japanese painters?? When I was there they were all over the place painting everything that stayed still long enough... :D

    And you gave me some other places to add to my list of places to visit...

    Soooo, does Wales have a reputation for being particularly wet? I have been to Wales once many many years ago and I have to say I was the wettest I have ever gotten in the UK... :D :D :D

    Err, was Jake in the post, too? :D Oh right... The visit to Robert Downey Jr... :D It's always nice to see that Jake stays in touch with people!!!

    Oh, and totally off topic - but this weekend I watched Bubbleboy with two friends. At least with one of them I was very suspicious if she would like it (I had more "faith" in her husband... :D) - but what can I say: They both liked it a lot :D I had a similar experience with two other friends some time ago and that leads me to believe that Bubbleboy is Jake's most underrated movie!! :D :D :D

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  17. Wet Dark and Wild29 June 2011 at 09:37

    Great to see you Uli! We thought of you when we were in Bibury - beautiful and packed! Came a cropper - means to snuff it in a bad way... There is indeed a reason why Wales is so green and it's not because of excessive sunshine.

    That's so good about your friends enjoying Bubble Boy. Every time I see it, I laugh and laugh. It doesn't grow old. Good job for spreading the Jake love about.

    Have a good day everyone!

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