The Duck Pond
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Cor what a weekend last weekend. The bloke and I spent it away in Bradford-On-Avon.
The Train
Because of Matt's car falling apart recently, we were forced to get the train. Eurgh it was horrible. We had to stop in Westbury for 45 minutes and Westbury (at least, the bit near the station that we wandered around) turned out to be a complete and utter shithole. There were definitely a few dodgy types at the station too, it made me very nervous. We arrived a bit late but fortunately the hotel was an easy walk from Bradford-on-Avon station.
The Hotel
Supposedly 5 star although it didn't seem of any better standard than many much cheaper 4 stars I've been in. It was nice though. The thing that really stood in its favour was its gardens (and that we had good weather to enjoy them). We had a great display of wildlife from our window, involving squirrels, rabbits and many types of birds that I couldn't name but by far the best thing was when we were walking down the drive: we saw a deer standing in the long grass, very close by. It stared at us for a few of seconds, allowing us to get a good look at its face, and then ran away. The room was ok, a bit yellow for my liking but it was supposed to be the "Wordsworth room" so everything had a daffodil theme. We had a four poster bed, which was a completely new experience for me.
The First Night
Sat outside for a bit, enjoying the balmy evening and the lovely gardens. We then decided to go for a drink. We balked at paying the hotel bar prices so we went to the nearest pub: The Beef and Barge. Unusual combination for a pub name but it was OK, if a little chavvy. Came under a fiver for two drinks though, in fact it was the same in all pubs we went to, which seems great after paying extortionate Newbury prices! Went back to the hotel somewhat tipsy and tried to unpack which was a crazy way of doing things but never let it be said that I'm organised.
The First Day
One of the worst things about staying at hotels is the breakfast dilemma: it's so nice and warm and schnuggly in your bed, you stayed up late last night and you could do with another couple of hours sleep and why not? you're on holiday! However you have already paid a lot for the room and that price includes breakfast. Breakfast only runs for another 40 minutes, miss it and you'll have to pay another fiver to get brunch in some cafe somewhere. Damn, better get up! So we bleared our way down to breakfast, after hurriedly getting dressed.
After breakfast we walked into town to get the bus to Bath. The views coming into Bath were quite stunning. The way Bath is built on many levels going into a valley makes it look strange and rather like a model town. There was an old lady at the back of the bus pointing out all the sites to some forrinners in a loud voice so we got a free guided tour and some tips of what to look out for. Somewhat amazingly the forrinners wanted to know if there was a McDonalds. We thought they were joking at first but no, they really wanted to eat there!
Our first stop was the most famous attraction: the Roman Baths. on the way, we passed some rather crap unicyclist who was getting angry at people walking across his “stage” (i.e. the pavement) and was trying to raise a crowd. We stayed for about a minute, simply in amusement at his ranting and raving and then went on to the baths to find it was a tenner each to get in. Not really being prepared to pay so much to see a room with a pool that I’ve already seen on TV we decided to go look round Bath Abbey instead. It really was an awesome building and I really couldn’t do it justice by describing it here. It was interesting but a little eerie reading the really old stones in tribute to people who lived a long long time ago.
Lunch next. Numnum. We wandered around aimlessly looking for somewhere to eat. We found a hippah cafe/restaurant but sadly they were full so we wandered round a bit more, sadly noting that most places were packed. The ones that weren’t were really scummy. We found a takeaway baguette place but I had no cash on me so we had another wander around in search of a bank. Bath, if you are unfamiliar with the place, is a bit like a rabbit warren. Lots of interesting streets and alleys leading off in all sorts of directions. I’d like to go again simply so I can explore these properly as I didn’t have time this visit. Anyway we finally found a bank and we noticed the delicious smell of curry in the air. Hurray we had found the Eastern Eye. Strangely the place was nearly empty but I guess curry isn’t really the most popular lunchtime dish. I really cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. The prices were very reasonable (£15 for two three-course meals plus drinks), the service was very friendly and efficient (but not so prompt that you feel they’re trying to rush you out of there, like in some restaurants I’ve been in) and the food was absolutely amazing. The decor of the restaurant was good too and we were sat by the window for lots of people-watching, a hobby of mine.
After lunch we wandered about some more, trying to find places of particular interest. We found a cool little market, not sure if it was a specialist market or not but there were plenty of hippah and fairtrade stalls. We were chatting to the bloke on the tea-stall when he exclaimed “oh it’s him again!”. We turned to see what looked like a scruffy tramp bent over a trolley. “It’s a robot”, continued the tea-man, and sure enough, closer inspection revealed that his leg movements were very jerky and erratic and there was moving machinery in the trolley, other than that the robot was very lifelike. It was apparently being remote controlled by some bloke around the market.
More wandering around brought us to the Jane Austen museum. We decided to give it a go, it being cheap and fairly interesting looking. This resulted in several minutes of smirking at how they’d based a whole museum on how Jane Austen stayed in Bath for 6 years and thought the place was a big shithole and didn’t do any famous work there (although she did mention Bath in two of her books, woo!). oh and it wasn’t actually a house she lived in either although it’s only along the street from one and “quite similar”!
Next we went to the river and did the touristy boat trip along the Avon. We got gestured and gyrated at by some drunkard on a bridge, which was probably the highlight of that trip.
Dinner was at some hippah veggie restaurant. Neither Matt nor I were used to having so much choice of what to eat. Splendid food although scary prices.
Then it was back to Bradford-on-Avon on the bus. As there was a mile walk from the town to the hotel, we decided to do a “pub crawl” back, i.e. stopping for one in every pub we passed on the way. One pub was particularly interesting. It had a sign outside that are now common outside pubs, only this one said “No Food, Crap Ale, Bad Hospitality”. How’s that for reverse psychology? Anyway it was cool, a local pub but one that didn’t make you feel unwelcome for not being local. The second pub was even nicer. The third and last was the chavvy one we’d been to the night previously.
The Second Day
Basically spent wandering around Bradford-on-Avon until it was time to go home. There was a street called “Church Street” and bloody hell did it have a lot of churches on it. The best one was a small saxon church from the mmmth century. Lots of interesting looking shops but they were all closed because it was Sunday.
This weekend I went to see Green Day. Will write that up later!
Thursday, June 16, 2005
I managed to burn my hand quite badly while making naan bread last night. Ouch. I won't be touching the metal that heats the grill again in a hurry (not that I did it on purpose this time). Luckily I'd mistakenly turned the oven on rather than the grill and it hadn't had time to fully heat else it could have been much worse! I'm so dumb I amaze myself sometimes.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
What this kid is being put through is so sick and twisted I can't even begin to express my feelings on it.
Monday, June 06, 2005
I had a weird dream last night which was very dungeons and dragons. Some friends and I escaped from being thrown into some kind of labour camp and had some thingummywotsit that transported us to another dimension. First place we went was an orc tavern, although it wasn't exclusively patronised by orcs. There were plenty of human peasants and people who were humanlike but not actually human. I had been given some orc ointment as I had been injured in the break for freedom and was applying it in the beer garden when a friend appeared and said "c'mon we'd better leave". It appeared they'd started a good old tavern brawl so we made a swift exit and went to another tavern called "Elvish". Guess which species that was run by. This place was much quieter and we were greeted by a very tall male elf who said "Welcome, how my I help you?". For some reason I jerked awake at this. I fell back asleep and this time we were climbing a great mountain, still trying to escape the shackles of oppression. The mountain was odd though. Plenty of snow at the bottom but nothing but rock at the top. There was a rope swing that swung you right off the edge. I really enjoyed this dream. There was so much detail and it all seemed so real and interesting.
I've not been very happy lately. Got a lot going on in my head that isn't making me feel very good. Not all of it can be solved simply and cleanly either. Mostly I've got a niggly feeling that I should be "making more of my life" whatever that means. I'm not really where I want to be and going nowhere fast. I'm baffled about a resolution though. It might be simpler if I knew where I want to be and what I want to be doing. All I know is it isn't here and it's not this. I waste so much of my spare time in doing things that aren't beneficial to me and that I don't even enjoy that much. At work, although my job isn't bad, I'm not really improving or advancing and I have a feeling there are things I'd rather be doing as a career. I hardly ever do or see anything new. I hardly ever sleep anymore and it's leaving me mentally and physically exhausted. I've not been looking after myself. All these things need to be addressed but I've hardly got the energy or motivation to even start.
Weekend was fun despite all these things. Ricey visited. We had a thai meal, we drank beer. We saw a woman who we suspected was an escort. I got ID'd at the late night bar which was ridiculous but probably for the best as I had a bad enough hangover the next day without carrying on to all hours. I was invited to play poker and wanted to go but the guys didn't want to. Again it's probably for the best I didn't go. I've decided I don't like myself when really drunk so have limited myself to 2 units when I go out and nothing in the house for a while. At least until I start to feel better about things.
