Saturday remained fairly misty and after a picnic lunch in the band rotunda we wandered around Chepstow (which didn't take long) and into the museum where we sat in our first corrugated iron bomb shelter and read all about heroes from Chepstow at Gallipoli before returning to the car and driving home. On the way to Chepstow (well sort of if you take the long way round) is a little town called Tutshill - not very famous until recently when JK Rowling who used to live there wrote all about Harry Potter. We wondered how long it would be before there is a Harry Potter museum in Tutshill where she grew up or in Chipping Sodbury where she was born or in Portugal where apparently she wrote some of the books. We then gave up - the rain got heavier - everyone was travelling to Cardiff to see the final of the 6 nations (Wales vs France which Wales won - there were a lot of sore heads on Monday morning - particularly if you were a Welsh rugby supporter and also celebrated St Patricks Day in the weekend - yes there were a few who managed both)
We took Manuel around Bristol after having a typical English dinner at a pub (Manuel chose burger and chips - english - yeah right) and to Brunel's suspension bridge (we seem to take all our friends there).
Sunday - after a very lazy start - we took off to Bath only to find that the half marathon was on and that road closures diverted us miles away from where we wanted to go (did we miss some of those little signs that told us where we should go?). We ended up in Farleigh where we saw some devastation from the recent heavy rain, another little castle (Farleigh Hungerford) built in the 1370s by Lord Hungerford who was Speaker of the Commons. The chapel was a lovely little family affair and the crypt underneath included 4 lead coffins of the 16th and 17th Hungerford family (and sadly some little children's ones as well) and some concrete ones still with their original painted decorations. We then drove to Bradford on Avon which we had been before but showed Manuel a canal, and looked for a 'real fish and chip shop' for lunch, but they were closed due to staff shortages or lunch just didn't extend to 2.45 in the afternoon. So, Manuel missed out on the English delight of soggy chips soaked in vinegar.
The half marathon was completed by the time we arrived in Bath and the only evidence that there was ever a race were a few runners limping along (some wrapped in foil to prevent hypothermia) and a large number of yellow witches hats and empty water bottles on the roads. We stopped at the Royal Crescent and second time lucky the museum at Number One was open. Fascinating place - where the rich came in the 1770's to stay for six months for the social season and the spas. Here they wined and dined, took a sedan to the spa (servants had to carry the sedan up the stairs to the second floor bedrooms afterwards as the rich were so tired from sitting in the hot water they couldn't manage the climb!!). The kitchen depicted the life of servants and animals. You know those little wheels that mice enjoy running around on. They had big ones for dogs so they could turn the meat on the rotisserie and churn the butter and if it wasn't a dog I guess the little children had the job of turning the wheel. We saw novel mouse traps (we were told that the servants skinned the mice, dyed the fur to match the wig colour and then cut them to the shape of the eyebrow before gluing them above the lady's eye - a fashion statement which I think I can happily do without!!). Then onto the circus (buildings are in a circle) and designed by John Wood, just before he designed the Crescent. Manuel and Harry enjoyed pretending they were in a circus. We found home quite easily and went around to a friends place for dinner before looking through our photos and going to bed (an early start to the week with dropping Manuel off at the airport).
This week was our first week back after spending 3 fun weeks in New Zealand. We've been really tired (perhaps two lots of jet lag in 3 weeks is taking its toll). We returned to England and the hope of spring. Daffodils are everywhere - and I have decided why English cities have lots of grass rather than flowering beds like in Wellington - its because in spring time the daffodils come up. Very pretty if only for a very short time. We have been frustrated this week with the problems of exchanging our drivers licences for English ones. Our international one only lasts for a year. The form says we have to post our passports away (no way we thought - that would impede our travel and we would risk never getting it back). So, we found out we can go to an office to show them our passport and have the form approved without posting it in but where are the offices? Glasgow, Nottingham, London and Swansea. So, a day off work travelling to Swansea during the week - not just one of us cos we have to go personally. The form also asks for a signature of someone who has known us for at least 2 years and has lived in England for at least 2 years. No one springs to mind for us (all our rellies seemed to move to England with the family on the boats back in the 1880's) and we've only been here for 10 months so our friends and workmates are all kind of new. So, we rang the 'hotline' again and they told us - that was o.k. we didn't need to worry as the office can endorse it when we go. We also heard a rumour that we couldn't drive while we didn't have either our NZ licence (which we have to post in with our application) or our English one (which we won't have) but that isn't true thankfully. We did both ring the hotline to make sure we got different people and the same answers which we did which is promising for any government agency. So, to get our license we have to plan another long weekend in Wales - what a shame... 
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