Cirencester and East Compton
I forgot to mention, yesterday, that we enjoyed another very nice pub meal while we were out and visited an small village ((Hambleden?) where according to my travel guide, several Miss Marple performances have been filmed.
I made the mistake of speaking to one elderly gentleman, sitting in his garden - just a cheery “hullo” I thought - but in true Miss Marple style, he quickly picked up “an accent” and Keith left me to get out of that one, alone.
“ Much ado” was an entertaining evening. Somehow the “Dad’s Army” characters were weaved into the performance - an amateur group who remembered their words and played their parts well. I DID wear my hearing aids but perhaps that was one of the occasions when I shouldn’t have! The singers started out well … but left a bit to be desired as the evening went on. Still, an enjoyable evening out with an ice cream at half time.
TUESDAY 22nd
Impressively, Keith was ready on the dot of 9.30 am as promised and we made our way to Cirencester via Ray’s to pick up a couple of things (wind jacket included … in case). Ever since, I’ve been wondering where my tickets home are because I don’t remember seeing them in my rush. I’ve got over a month to find them, but it will have to stay in the back of my mind until I get back to Ray’s next week, I guess.
We made it to Cirencester with time to spare and at the appointed hour Sarah (and Nick) - my oldest niece who lives in Africa - arrived and Philip, Rosemary and I joined them in the taxi, to go to a nearby pub (The Pig … check that out on Google … posh!) for a very swish meal, much laughter and one or two “glasses” for the non Drivers amongst us. Hannah met us there with her youngest daughter (Francesca - endearingly nicknamed “Frenchie” by some of the group - but not the grandparents or great aunt.).
It went on longer than anticipated and so there were rather hasty goodbyes, no photos taken, but a very happy time had by all.
Which left Hannah, Francesca and me wending our way back to East Compton - checking out yellow cars and minis. Francesca won (12-5) with the minis but Hannah and I did pretty well with the yellow cars … possibly because I decided anything yellow should qualify and they were ALMOST too polite to point it out.
But that’s not all … we arrived home for another huge meal, celebrating Emilia’s birthday - but that will have to wait until another blog because I’ve been hiding away long enough from the rest of the family to write this up.
So much for the “diet” … or at least the attempt to ‘be sensible’ while I’m over here.