It has been a great week for us. Four big things have happened.... my first happened on Monday when I was going to work and passed another cyclist - a first for me (and no I was not driving the car). Since then I have passed a few more cyclists which proves I am getting a little bit fitter and faster and no longer an absolute novice. The evenings are getting shorter and we have just bought ourselves wet weather gear (bright yellow) which means we should be able to continue to bike until it snows or we give in to the weather which ever comes first. But daylight saving soon ends (so we will no longer be 12 hours behind NZ - because I heard NZ has just started as well). The second big thing is that we have been invited to dinner at someone's place our first English invite (someone I used to work with at the hospital). We have been to Shane and Adrienne's but they are New Zealanders which in itself is quite special and heaps of fun but also different. In fact we had a lovely evening at their home this week. It was quite funny as we drove into their street we realised we had no idea which house they lived in cos they all looked the same. We ended up having to ring them up to find out and we were about 10 houses out. In NZ if we couldn't remember the number we could usually remember something unique about the house like the letter box or garden or colour. I remember Frannie saying to me how special it was when she moved to Wellington and was invited out by New Zealanders - its a bit like feeling that you are accepted. Which moves me onto our third event - we are moving in a months time into Frannie's Bristol home. For those of you who don't know Frannie she worked with me for about 18 months in Wellington and is a born and bred Bristolian. Her house had just become available at the same time that we decided we would like to find a place of our own. It is across the other side of town, so we can explore another part of Bristol and is also within walking distance from work. Its a terraced house (a very similar design to the one that Adrienne and Shane are in). We went shopping last night and bought things like a jug, toaster, pots, dinner set, coffee mugs, cutlery and were very pleased we could outfit the kitchen for about £50 (things like that are very cheap over here but the cost of food especially fruit and vegetables is high). It is quite a novelty being able to outfit a home from scratch - poor Harry couldn't see the importance of colour co-ordinating our new assets - but he eventually gave in to my suggestion that the toaster and jug should be either both white or both stainless steel. We will be on the lookout for some furniture but not a lot cos we aren't over here permanently. And our fourth piece of news is that we have booked to come home to NZ for 3 weeks in February for Sharon's 21st. We are so looking forward to it. We went shopping in Bath on Saturday. The first time we have been to Bath without it raining. I knew that it would be a delightful little place if it ever stopped raining. We parked up a very steep hill as the traffic was horrific and the parking just as bad and walked down into town where we started our Christmas shopping. I had to slow down at one stage and look up at the Roman Bath House and the church and the old markets as to rush passed them seemed so wrong. I can see why busy people take it all for granted. I never want to stop being a tourist and a visitor because then I won't appreciate the lovely surroundings like the flower beds, stone buildings, architecture etc. - so there is a fine balance of being accepted as a local and being a visitor at the same time. It was very busy there today with lots of tour buses, people milling around and one shop mentioned that it was student loan day which explained the number of students in town. We stopped in a pub to see the last few minutes of the Fiji/Wales game and the cheer from the watchers when Fiji won nearly raised the roof - sounds as though there might be a bit of competition between the 2 country's like NZ and Australia. Anyway, the quarter final games look as though they will be fun to watch. Everyday we hopefully look at the website to see if any seats have come available for the All Black quarterfinal in Cardiff but so far no luck.
Sunday we went to Cheddar gorge. We drove the long way round and drove down the gorge. The gorge is a popular place for abseilers and rock climbers. The first person to climb this rock took 5 hours and according to tradition was allowed to name it. He decided to call it Coronation Street because it goes on and on and on and on.
The caves were magnificent staligmites and stalictites and we also discovered there is a thing called curtaintites (instead of growing downwards they grow across ways and hang like curtains). The reflections in the water created a lovely peaceful atmosphere and we enjoyed wandering around the caves. We still haven't seen any glow worms though.
After the caves we wandered around the little town, did a bit of shopping and had a picnic lunch by the waterfall. The town is quite lovely and covers both sides of the road going down the gorge. There are a lot of boutique type shops and so many tea rooms and food places obviously catering for the summer season (they weren't that busy today). One shop person recognised us as being from the southern hemisphere when I asked how much some 'gumboots' were. She was from South Africa where they also call them 'gumboots'.
We then had a real treat - wandered up 274 steps (Haz and I counted more than that) to the top of the gorge and walked 2 miles along the top. It wasn't that steep but we followed a rocky path(which would be a river in the winter I imagine) and the paths were bordered by gorse, scotch thistle and blackberry. Lots of colours and great views! We saw a rare wild goat, which after he had posed for a while for photos wandered down a steep hill we would never have contemplated going down. The gorge is owned by Lord Bath and one of the regular events is for abseilers to clear the growing vegetation from the cliffs. Goats and wild sheep used to but there are not enough of them around now. Apparently, if the vegetation is allowed to grow the roots get into nooks and cranneys and split the rocks causing rock slides. Funny, cos in NZ the clearing of the bush caused land slides.
After wandering back down the hill we visited the reservoir in the background. As if we hadn't enough exercise we walked around it which took about 50 minutes. The sheep were very curious of passers by and not scared at all (we think it is because they aren't herded by dogs and probably are bred for their wool rather than their meat and so have never had anything to be frightened of). We passed a couple walking 4 dogs of which one sat in a push chair (looked quite well to me but possibly just lazy). Had our cheddar cheese (the tasting shop was great could have had dinner there) and a red pepper pickle for dinner.
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