It's beginning to feel a bit like...
Having spent most of the last part of the week preparing for the Medical Ethics conference, which went like a dream on Friday, we'd planned a fairly quiet weekend. In the event, we had the two actors we'd hosted to take to the station for a ten o'clock train, which set a kind of limit to what we planned for Saturday.
The day dawned bright and clear - bitterly cold, and frosty, and the kind of day when it's great to be out and about. We dropped Paul and Jane off at Stroud station and decided to hit the road and go to Dyrham Park, on the A46 just outside Bath, for a walk and general look-around. We arrived around 10.30am - to find that the place didn't open till 11. Hmmm. The road had been remarkably quiet and there appeared to be few people about - why didn't we just carry on down into Bath and have a potter around, and go into Dyrham on the way home?
Hah! We got parked relatively easily, in spite of our later-than-usual time of arrival. But Bath was heaving with Christmas shoppers. Most were done up in warm clothes, smart and stylish - G felt a bit country-bumpkin-like in her Hayley=coat and jeans, having dressed for a country walk, not smart-city-shopping. But nevertheless, we soldiered on, intending to just have a look around our favourite shops, browse in Waterstones, the CD shop and WHS for magazines. Oh, and pop into the kitchen shop for - now what was it?
After a really short time, we'd had enough. Enough of the hordes of people, the immense queues and the browsers. Enough of the promotions of things we didn't want to buy - the piles of heavily-promoted bestsellers in Waterstones which drew the attention away from the one-offs, the lucky finds and the surprise unlooked-fors. We joined a really long queue in Starbucks for coffee to go, to walk along with and enjoy the cold morning in such an attractive city. Having got our drinks we found it hard not to be carried along at breakneck speed with people on a mission...loaded with bags and lists.
We quit whilst we were behind and opted for an early exit, were hounded out of the car park by several people wanting to lay claim to our parking space and headed for Dyrham.
Once there, we found peace and quiet - and not a great deal else. The house was closed, the garden was closed, and only the park was open. We walked down to the house and pottered around a little, taking one or two photos and being surprised at the location and site of the house, feeling pleased that our NT membership meant that we hadn't actually paid to get in - and the more pleased that there was a shuttle bus to save us the (uphill) walk back to the car park.
We drove home, lit the stove and snuggled in for a quiet night at home. All of a sudden, internet shopping seems a very attractive proposition.
(First posted by Gill)
The day dawned bright and clear - bitterly cold, and frosty, and the kind of day when it's great to be out and about. We dropped Paul and Jane off at Stroud station and decided to hit the road and go to Dyrham Park, on the A46 just outside Bath, for a walk and general look-around. We arrived around 10.30am - to find that the place didn't open till 11. Hmmm. The road had been remarkably quiet and there appeared to be few people about - why didn't we just carry on down into Bath and have a potter around, and go into Dyrham on the way home?
Hah! We got parked relatively easily, in spite of our later-than-usual time of arrival. But Bath was heaving with Christmas shoppers. Most were done up in warm clothes, smart and stylish - G felt a bit country-bumpkin-like in her Hayley=coat and jeans, having dressed for a country walk, not smart-city-shopping. But nevertheless, we soldiered on, intending to just have a look around our favourite shops, browse in Waterstones, the CD shop and WHS for magazines. Oh, and pop into the kitchen shop for - now what was it?
After a really short time, we'd had enough. Enough of the hordes of people, the immense queues and the browsers. Enough of the promotions of things we didn't want to buy - the piles of heavily-promoted bestsellers in Waterstones which drew the attention away from the one-offs, the lucky finds and the surprise unlooked-fors. We joined a really long queue in Starbucks for coffee to go, to walk along with and enjoy the cold morning in such an attractive city. Having got our drinks we found it hard not to be carried along at breakneck speed with people on a mission...loaded with bags and lists.
We quit whilst we were behind and opted for an early exit, were hounded out of the car park by several people wanting to lay claim to our parking space and headed for Dyrham.
Once there, we found peace and quiet - and not a great deal else. The house was closed, the garden was closed, and only the park was open. We walked down to the house and pottered around a little, taking one or two photos and being surprised at the location and site of the house, feeling pleased that our NT membership meant that we hadn't actually paid to get in - and the more pleased that there was a shuttle bus to save us the (uphill) walk back to the car park.
We drove home, lit the stove and snuggled in for a quiet night at home. All of a sudden, internet shopping seems a very attractive proposition.
(First posted by Gill)
posted by Mark at
1:35 pm
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