Two Go Mad In Somerset (and London)...
Jul. 19th, 2012 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
londonronnieInternet access being what it is (ie, non-existent), I’m going to try to update as often as possible and then actually post some entries when I can get online. I shall avoid trying to upload photos until I get home, I think. Last time I tried to upload them whilst logged on at Wetherspoon’s it took an age, so hopefully posting will be easier this way...
Well, that’s the London trip over and done with. Very enjoyable it was too, despite the virtually constant rainfall. Nothing unusual in that this summer, of course...
But still, we carried on regardless! Bit of a disappointing trip to Greenwich on Friday in order to take some photos of HMS Ocean, which is being moored on the Thames as part of the Olympic security operation – only to find that she wasn’t actually due to arrive until later that afternoon *groan*. From there to Bloomsbury and a very pleasant half-an-hour spent browsing in Gay’s The Word, resulting in three books from the secondhand shelf, plus Clayton Littlewood’s two books about Soho. Always a pleasure shopping in GTW, even if Jim did try to overcharge me by about four hundred quid! Purely accidental, I hasten to add! Gave us both a good laugh, anyway! Then it was on to Soho for some very refreshing Cidre Breton in the lovely French House and a gorgeous meal in Amalfi’s... Great way to spend an afternoon, the only downside being a glitch in our Oyster cards which meant the twenty quid credit we put on them doesn’t seem to have registered. Grrr...
There seems to be an air of impending chaos in central London, all due to the Olympics, needless to say. How on earth anyone is going to get around the capital during the next few weeks is beyond me. It’ll be interesting to see just how the public transport services cope with the increase in passenger numbers. As for driving in the centre of town... my best advice would be “Don’t!”. The road restrictions – Olympic lanes etc – look totally confusing to me and I’m bloody glad that I won’t be there when they come into use. It’ll be interesting to see if the number of road rage cases increases during the Games. As for prices – first time I’ve ever paid £4 for a pint of beer! Pubs and restaurants are obviously taking advantage of the Olympics to put up their prices and I can’t see them coming down again after everything’s over...
Saturday morning saw us doing a quick tootle over to Wimbledon to visit Vallebona, a Sardinian food wholesalers which is located on a rather nondescript industrial site. The place is like Aladdin’s cave – as soon as you walk through the door your senses are overwhelmed by gorgeous sights and smells. Free tastings of numerous cheeses, cooked meats, breads, olive oils... even free wine! Our main aim was to buy my favourite pasta – malloredus – which I’ve only ever found available to buy from two places, Vallebona’s and a lovely little Sardinian deli which opened in Newcastle at the beginning of the year but which has now closed its doors for good. Knowing that my supply is now severely curtailed, I decided to take the plunge and ended up buying a 5kg bag of the stuff. A bit over the top, perhaps? Nah, not when you love the stuff as much as I do...
So, that’s London over and done with for another five months or so and now we’re in Somerset! The village is as gorgeous as ever, relaxing as ever, and the welcome from the people here is as friendly as ever.
James (the pub’s landlord) has put us in our favourite room, the one with a little private patio and the Washford River cascading past the door. Not that the cascading is anything like the norm... usually the Washford is little more than a trickle, but with the recent heavy rainfall it’s actually been threatening to flood this week, for the first time in about forty years. Apparently James had sandbags installed at the door to our room a few days ago. The flood didn’t materialise, thank goodness, and we are now benefitting from the sound of the river tumbling past the window as we lay in bed. Is there a more relaxing sound?
Weather has continued to be poor – although as I write this the sun has just come out! Unfortunately as it’s now 6.30pm and we’re just about to go for a pint and a bite to eat we won’t be taking advantage of it now, but hopefully tomorrow will be a decent day for walking.
Tuesday dawned not so bright, but at least it’s dry! We decided to ease ourselves into the walking business by tackling a fairly easy route, and ended up doing the short trek to a lovely little hamlet called Leighland Chapel. The walk took us past some lovely old buildings and along an ancient green trackway where we met some very friendly ponies, and ended up in the churchyard of the chapel itself. I don’t think a more peaceful spot exists. We sat in the churchyard for a while enjoying the view across the hills, and watching the buzzards soaring overhead. It was sheer bliss.
I’ve always reckoned that churchyards are brilliant places for writers to find names for their characters, and there were a couple of crackers in the one at Leighland – Amos Tudball and Nellie Stubbles. I think I’m going to have to write a fic just to get those names a mention...
And btw, don’t tell anyone but while we were at Leighland it was actually hot and sunny!! Wonders will never cease! Of course, it did try to rain a bit later in the day...
Got back to the pub to find that James had left keys out for guests arriving during the day. Apparently somebody named Shaw is coming to stay here today. I wonder... (ETA: the Shaws turned out to be a young couple. Oh well, I shall carry on dreaming...)
Wednesday’s been a miserable day. Spent best part of a couple of hours this morning walking the village bounds, and got absolutely soaked in the process. Decided we felt lazy when we got back, so had several pints at lunchtime, farted about in the afternoon, then went back into the pub in the evening for dinner. So much for our resolution about not eating in the pub every day... Much excitement ensued when we realised that we had a famous horse racing trainer, plus several well known jockeys and owners in our midst tonight. To our credit, we resisted the temptation to gatecrash and ask if any of them had any decent tips for Goodwood.
Main topic of conversation in the village at the moment is the impending Village Fete, due to take place this coming Saturday. Ever since we’ve been coming here people have been saying “Oh, you’ve just missed the fete!” or “What a shame, you’re going home the day before the fete!” so when we realised that our holiday this year was going to coincide with the event we were more than a little chuffed. Now, it seems the whole thing is under threat due to the weather. The actual forecast is for bright and sunny on the day, but sadly the field where everything usually takes place is about six inches under water. Thankfully there is a sizeable village hall here, and many of the attractions could be moved indoors if necessary, but some things such as the dog show and the golf contest really need to be outdoors.
Everyone’s keeping everything crossed anyway... (Oh dear, I’ve just noticed that one of the listed attractions for the fete is a “Pimms Tent”. That sounds like an extremely bad idea to me...)
Thursday morning now, and I'm sitting in Wetherspoon's nursing a coffee whilst 'imself does the shopping. Who says I haven't got him well trained? Hopefully the rather dodgy internet connection will last long enough for me to post this...
And btw - I iz writing again!!
(Apologies if lj-cuts aren't showing up. I've checked back a couple of times and sometimes they seem to have worked, and sometimes they haven't!)
Well, that’s the London trip over and done with. Very enjoyable it was too, despite the virtually constant rainfall. Nothing unusual in that this summer, of course...
But still, we carried on regardless! Bit of a disappointing trip to Greenwich on Friday in order to take some photos of HMS Ocean, which is being moored on the Thames as part of the Olympic security operation – only to find that she wasn’t actually due to arrive until later that afternoon *groan*. From there to Bloomsbury and a very pleasant half-an-hour spent browsing in Gay’s The Word, resulting in three books from the secondhand shelf, plus Clayton Littlewood’s two books about Soho. Always a pleasure shopping in GTW, even if Jim did try to overcharge me by about four hundred quid! Purely accidental, I hasten to add! Gave us both a good laugh, anyway! Then it was on to Soho for some very refreshing Cidre Breton in the lovely French House and a gorgeous meal in Amalfi’s... Great way to spend an afternoon, the only downside being a glitch in our Oyster cards which meant the twenty quid credit we put on them doesn’t seem to have registered. Grrr...
There seems to be an air of impending chaos in central London, all due to the Olympics, needless to say. How on earth anyone is going to get around the capital during the next few weeks is beyond me. It’ll be interesting to see just how the public transport services cope with the increase in passenger numbers. As for driving in the centre of town... my best advice would be “Don’t!”. The road restrictions – Olympic lanes etc – look totally confusing to me and I’m bloody glad that I won’t be there when they come into use. It’ll be interesting to see if the number of road rage cases increases during the Games. As for prices – first time I’ve ever paid £4 for a pint of beer! Pubs and restaurants are obviously taking advantage of the Olympics to put up their prices and I can’t see them coming down again after everything’s over...
Saturday morning saw us doing a quick tootle over to Wimbledon to visit Vallebona, a Sardinian food wholesalers which is located on a rather nondescript industrial site. The place is like Aladdin’s cave – as soon as you walk through the door your senses are overwhelmed by gorgeous sights and smells. Free tastings of numerous cheeses, cooked meats, breads, olive oils... even free wine! Our main aim was to buy my favourite pasta – malloredus – which I’ve only ever found available to buy from two places, Vallebona’s and a lovely little Sardinian deli which opened in Newcastle at the beginning of the year but which has now closed its doors for good. Knowing that my supply is now severely curtailed, I decided to take the plunge and ended up buying a 5kg bag of the stuff. A bit over the top, perhaps? Nah, not when you love the stuff as much as I do...
So, that’s London over and done with for another five months or so and now we’re in Somerset! The village is as gorgeous as ever, relaxing as ever, and the welcome from the people here is as friendly as ever.
James (the pub’s landlord) has put us in our favourite room, the one with a little private patio and the Washford River cascading past the door. Not that the cascading is anything like the norm... usually the Washford is little more than a trickle, but with the recent heavy rainfall it’s actually been threatening to flood this week, for the first time in about forty years. Apparently James had sandbags installed at the door to our room a few days ago. The flood didn’t materialise, thank goodness, and we are now benefitting from the sound of the river tumbling past the window as we lay in bed. Is there a more relaxing sound?
Weather has continued to be poor – although as I write this the sun has just come out! Unfortunately as it’s now 6.30pm and we’re just about to go for a pint and a bite to eat we won’t be taking advantage of it now, but hopefully tomorrow will be a decent day for walking.
Tuesday dawned not so bright, but at least it’s dry! We decided to ease ourselves into the walking business by tackling a fairly easy route, and ended up doing the short trek to a lovely little hamlet called Leighland Chapel. The walk took us past some lovely old buildings and along an ancient green trackway where we met some very friendly ponies, and ended up in the churchyard of the chapel itself. I don’t think a more peaceful spot exists. We sat in the churchyard for a while enjoying the view across the hills, and watching the buzzards soaring overhead. It was sheer bliss.
I’ve always reckoned that churchyards are brilliant places for writers to find names for their characters, and there were a couple of crackers in the one at Leighland – Amos Tudball and Nellie Stubbles. I think I’m going to have to write a fic just to get those names a mention...
And btw, don’t tell anyone but while we were at Leighland it was actually hot and sunny!! Wonders will never cease! Of course, it did try to rain a bit later in the day...
Got back to the pub to find that James had left keys out for guests arriving during the day. Apparently somebody named Shaw is coming to stay here today. I wonder... (ETA: the Shaws turned out to be a young couple. Oh well, I shall carry on dreaming...)
Wednesday’s been a miserable day. Spent best part of a couple of hours this morning walking the village bounds, and got absolutely soaked in the process. Decided we felt lazy when we got back, so had several pints at lunchtime, farted about in the afternoon, then went back into the pub in the evening for dinner. So much for our resolution about not eating in the pub every day... Much excitement ensued when we realised that we had a famous horse racing trainer, plus several well known jockeys and owners in our midst tonight. To our credit, we resisted the temptation to gatecrash and ask if any of them had any decent tips for Goodwood.
Main topic of conversation in the village at the moment is the impending Village Fete, due to take place this coming Saturday. Ever since we’ve been coming here people have been saying “Oh, you’ve just missed the fete!” or “What a shame, you’re going home the day before the fete!” so when we realised that our holiday this year was going to coincide with the event we were more than a little chuffed. Now, it seems the whole thing is under threat due to the weather. The actual forecast is for bright and sunny on the day, but sadly the field where everything usually takes place is about six inches under water. Thankfully there is a sizeable village hall here, and many of the attractions could be moved indoors if necessary, but some things such as the dog show and the golf contest really need to be outdoors.
Everyone’s keeping everything crossed anyway... (Oh dear, I’ve just noticed that one of the listed attractions for the fete is a “Pimms Tent”. That sounds like an extremely bad idea to me...)
Thursday morning now, and I'm sitting in Wetherspoon's nursing a coffee whilst 'imself does the shopping. Who says I haven't got him well trained? Hopefully the rather dodgy internet connection will last long enough for me to post this...
And btw - I iz writing again!!
(Apologies if lj-cuts aren't showing up. I've checked back a couple of times and sometimes they seem to have worked, and sometimes they haven't!)
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 10:30 am (UTC)It all sounds glorious and fascinating, and I wish I were doing it! *g* I'm torn between wanting to into London for day just to see, and not wanting to get caught up in any of it - ack!
And I shan't say anything else now except hurrah for writing again, that's brilliant news!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 11:01 am (UTC)Glad to hear you're both having a break, enjoying the blistering English summer :)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 12:00 pm (UTC)It all sounds wonderful - and very relaxing. I hope you carry on having a brilliant time - and I'm crossing my fingers for the village fete too *g*
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 01:29 pm (UTC)Enjoy lunch tomorrow!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 01:55 pm (UTC)We decided to ease ourselves into the walking business lol - and hooray for some warm sunshine at your destination, although I suppose there might've been a yew or a porch to shelter under...
Hope the promised drier weather happens soon.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-19 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-20 09:21 am (UTC)And seconding/thirding/fourthing etc. the unanimous yay! for writing again *g*
no subject
Date: 2012-07-20 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 10:08 am (UTC)That all sounds very good!