The view down our streetIt was another beautiful day, but we got a bit of a late start, planning a trip to Bath around the end of the month. It will be the second trip since our arrival, as we're heading to Telford for a wedding shortly. Very exciting!
And it isn't like we have to leave Cheltenham to take in some amazing sites: we somehow managed to miss St. Mary's Church on our house-hunting trip. It's the only surviving medieval building in town, and has been in continuous use for 850 years, according to Wikipedia. We spent a lot of time wandering around it and reading the inscriptions on the stones.
Then it was off to get some groceries for the week at the Tesco Superstore. It's a lot closer than we thought, first of all: maybe five minutes from the Waitrose that we've been going to. And a much bigger shop cost about half of what we're used to spending. We've been told (many times) that the grocery stores here can be ranked for both price and quality, from lowest to highest, as: Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer. That said, at no point did either of us feel like we were shopping in a discount store such as Food Basics back home. Sure, it was a bit busier, but that won't matter if we're ordering from their Web site.
I look lots more pictures for you, Stephen, so have a peek at this month's album. And I'll take requests for pictures of other stuff, so long as you don't abuse it. :-)
And so it begins! A decent flight with a strong tailwind got us to Heathrow well ahead of schedule. In an attempt to avoid the awkwardness of our Customs experience in June, we placed our landing cards in our passports such that the visa pages would be the first thing the agent saw. It worked well, except the agent then stamped those pages as they would any other blank page in a passport; you can't even make out my birth date or nationality now. *sigh* I think both Tea and I cried a little (inside) to see the fruits of no small amount of labour vandalized in such a fashion. Of course, we said nothing, and were through in no time; here's hoping the next Customs agent who looks at them doesn't bat an eyelash.
Oh, and one final note on Customs: I saw Michael Geist in line behind us with his family. I didn't introduce myself, however, so that's all I have to say about that.
Since we were well ahead of schedule, we decided to see if we could catch an earlier National Express coach to Cheltenham. Tea had paid extra for this option -- in case Customs tripped us up -- and for an additional fee, we were on the 7:15 a.m. coach, Caffè Nero snacks and drinks in hand.
We sent James, our landlord, a text message on the way asking if showing up early would be a problem. He said that so long as we didn't mind him under foot for a bit, it was fine with him. He's quite the funny guy, actually -- Tea says he reminds her of our friend 'W', and I can see why -- and we all hit it off really well. (We'd met his wife, Linda, on our house-hunting trip.)
Malvern Road BridgeAfter dropping our bags, and going through their list of important things to know and the inventory (they're very organized), it was off to Waitrose to see what the nearest grocery store had to offer. As if the fifteen-minute walk door-to-door (with convenience stores much closer than that) wasn't sweet enough, we got to take in the beautiful Honeybourne Line Cycle Path while doing so. Add to that that there are many lactose-free products available at Waitrose -- there are none at Tesco, and I was beginning to wonder if that was indicative of the whole town -- and a free delivery service, and you can understand why I was grinning from ear to ear as we left for home.
Our kitchen tableThen it was time for a nap; Tea's was only slightly longer than mine, ;-) leaving me time to finish The Falcon and The Snowman and have a good long chat with Kae.
We decided to have take-away delivered from The Everest -- a favourite of ours on the June trip -- for supper, and used the Waitrose and Tesco Web sites to plan what groceries we'd like delivered over the next two days while we waited for it. Our supper arrived in no time, piping hot; the balti chicken was just as good as I remembered, and it was a great experience all-round: I've never shaken a delivery guy's hand before! :-)
We got an early start of sorts today: board games and wine 'til 2 a.m. (local) -- you'd think we were protesting the time change, with 9 p.m. EST being a perfectly reasonable time for such things.
On O'Neill's patio I had time to finish The Cider House Rules before Tea was ready to begin Day 4 proper. First up was lunch at O'Neill's: Tea had the two-cheese burger -- with some sort of blue cheese that she really enjoyed -- and I had Guinness fish 'n' chips with mushy peas -- I can see I'm gonna be a big fan of the mushy peas!
The library Then it was off to a bookstore Tea had heard about called Cooking: The Books; as you might expect, it was packed to the rafters with all manner of cookbooks, and books about food and drink in general. The printed-word trend continued with a stop at the library; not a big branch, per se, but laid out very well, with a good mix of old and new titles (including movies, CDs and comic books -- a.k.a. graphic novels). The facade is under construction right now, and I loved the smell of freshly-cut wood as you entered and left the building.
We then made our way to High Street, and decided to pop in to Starbucks for a pick-me-up as the rain began. (I love the way they assume you're staying in there; nice, big, ceramic mugs too.) A bit of grocery shopping at Tesco and Wilkinson followed, and since the rain was still fairly heavy once we'd finished, we decided to see a movie.
The subtle differences continued when the lady behind the cash asked us whether we'd prefer to sit in the front or the back of the theatre: they assign seats at their cinema! We had an hour to kill before the show -- Last Chance Harvey -- so we headed across the way to Frankie & Benny's for a pint.
Inside the cinema Our return to the theatre brought new surprises: they serve liquor, for one; and they asked Tea whether she'd like her popcorn sweet or salty. (The latter, of course, silly woman; my girl is nothing if not a salt lova.) The ratings are also very prominent, on both the trailers and the feature. I think they should've had them in front of the ads too: they played one for the Royal Marines that left me thunderstruck -- I think I muttered something along the lines of "f***in' hell..." following it.
An interesting consequence of assigned seating was that hardly anyone showed up before the feature began. Prior to the trailers, it looked like we'd share the theatre with half a dozen couples at most. Halfway through the trailers, the theatre was still half-empty. Then they just started spilling in, and it was about five minutes into the feature before it trickled off, leaving only the first two rows free for the most part. It was refreshing, actually, compared to the line-ups at our multiplexes.
Thai Emerald We were feeling a bit peckish after the show -- excellent movie, incidentally, as you'd expect of anything that would interest both Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman -- so off we went to Thai Emerald. What an impressive restaurant! Big, banquet-size tables that still manage to feel warm and welcoming; and the food! Oh, the green curry was amazing! Everything was, really. Even the Thai beer, Singha, managed to surprise me, tasting more like a bitter than a lager, and, honest to goodness, reminiscent of Fuller's ESB (which I love). A great cap on the evening, to say the least.
Finally, here's some comic relief from the morning. If you're interested in looking at more photos from the day, check out our Day 4 album -- note that we've had a request for supermarket photos; this isn't some sort of fetish of mine. :-)
