Supposed to wake up at 9am. But the nua-ness in me took over when the alarm rang, ‘cause I saw Huijie and Shimmie still sleeping. Ha. But by 9.30am, cannot nua anymore. Nua anymore and I’ll forfeit my 5 quid. Ha. The girls woke up by then also. After washing up and packing our stuff, we managed to check out by 10.30am. But we haven’t had our breakfast yet. Borrowed their TV lounge and kitchen for breakfast. For dunno what reason, Huijie’s finger was bleeding. The 1st conclusion was the air is too dry. So the skin breaks easily. Whatever. Lucky I bought the handy 1st aid kit in Boots. Gave her the antiseptic wipe and a plaster. They had the cross raisin buns and chocolate muffins, I had my pain au choc and milk. Very filling. Ha. Shimmie wanted to finish up the remains of plain chocolate digestives. She’s got a slight sore throat and she gave up her will soon after. Gave the final few pieces to the Caucasians in the room.
We left for Sally Lunn’s at 11.30am. Supposedly the oldest house in Bath. When we reached there, it did look old with a cottage sense of building. Well, we went in and the waitress wanted to serve us in their restaurant. Once we said we wanna look at the museum and buy a bun or 2, she gave us a another-ghiam-siap-gui face and directed us down to the cellar. The room is very small. Slightly bigger than the toilet in my hall I think. Ha. There’re 2 rooms we can look in, shielded by glass panels. They are set up to show what Sally Lunn’s life then was like. Well, not too bad. It would have been more interesting if we could have some farmstay lifestyle to experience it instead of just see-see-look-look. We wanted to buy a single bun due to the heavy breakfast we had just now, but the lady at the counter said the bun wouldn’t taste good alone. Well, we gave face and bought jam too. Ha, Shimmie tried to convince us to take the blackcurrant jam. Well, I didn’t really like blackcurrant, so I chose apricot instead. Now, we were both looking at Huijie to make a choice. Yay, she chose apricot. Ha. Shimmie just can’t hide her disappointment. Well, for the sake of her pride, she picked the blackcurrant jam too. She paid for the bun and 2 small jars of jam, we would pay her later.
Leaving the house, turned right and passed by a sweet shop. Bath Sweet Shop. Boring name. Anyway, it says inside that it’s the oldest sweet shop in Bath. I bought 70p worth of marshmallows for us to share. 113g of it. But the lady took some 118g and charged me 73p for it. Well, all the more to get rid of my pennies. We came to a big old tree, dunno what species it belongs to but it looks damn damn old. There were a group by the tree caroling. Nice voices, I couldn’t have imagined if I were in them. Probably squeaking through all the songs. Ha. 12pm. The Stonehenge trip starts at 1.15pm, we had nowhere to go. Ended up in McDonalds, I treated them to hot tea and hot chocolate and crinkle fries. Accompany that with the bun and marshmallows and we had a light lunch. Took more stirrers from the counter to use for spreading jam. Ha. We had another good chat, talking cock most of the time. Shimmie grew so bored she started mixing the jams together on her bun. We forgot to take a picture of the bun when it was still nice and whole, we took it only after we tore it into 3 pieces. Ha. Well, still whole but with lines. Anyway, Shimmie meant to treat us with the bun. Ha. Great. Ghian png as I am, I would never mind a treat. Ultimate ghian png. Ha.
Passed by the Roman Bath shop again, we tempted Shimmie to buy the book of rhymes she wanted to buy. She refused, saying that she’d probably find it in London. Well, hope she does find it. If not, it’s a opportunity lost. Tried to look around the city centre, but with Huijie’s big backpack, we didn’t wanna walk too far off. Finally reached the bus. It’s more like a little van, can’t take more than a dozen I think. At first there was some disappointment. The driver, Charles, mentioned he doesn’t have any luggage space for Huijie’s backpack. We offered to have it on our laps, and he offered us the backseats which spans across the vehicles. Apparently the biggest seats and most space available. Nice chap. The cost at first was £15, but he decided to charge us the admission for Stonehenge which was £4.40 for students. I guess no one would not wanna go Stonehenge without going in, meeting the stones in close proximity. Total cost around 20 quid, including a tour of Lacock, a village where home of Harry Potter’s parents is filmed. I guess it’s not too bad, we get some sightseeing as well. The 1st stop is Lacock. Nice village, a place I would wanna retire in. Slow paced, small community of hundred odd people, cosy feeling. There’s only 4 roads, making the village look like a square. Everything is a reduced size from what we usually see in cities, which makes them look more like dollhouses. Ha. Cutesy stuff. Walked around 30 minutes, it’s time for the highlights: Stonehenge itself. Charles drove into Salisbury plains, where Stonehenge is found. It is on these plains that the British army conduct their live firing. Looking at the plains, I’m not fazed by why they used it for military purposes. The plains are humongous. Can’t even see the nearest village or city, which happens to be Salisbury. Just roads and acres of land, flat grassland. Wow. Anyway, Charles got us tickets to go in, with audio guides (typical British museum fashion). The stones are definitely an amazement. I probably wouldn’t see it anywhere else in the world a stone formation with this kind of amazing geometry, geology and geography. The mass that these stones possess can only be measured in tonnes, when there were no efficient way of transporting and erecting these stones in those days a few thousand years ago. Wow. Simply amazing. My eyes just can stop feasting on this majestic formation, what more with its station stones marking summer and winter solstices and how the geometry works out so well. Now that I remember, the ghost walk guide yesterday did say that the Royal Circus in Bath was built in exact dimension with the Stonehenge. Anyway, there’s a part in the tour which made me kinda furious. It was said that tourists in the past often rented hammers and chisels from nearby towns and cities to knock pieces of stone of the Stonehenge to keep as souvenirs. Well, Huijie and Shimmie do see the logic behind wanting to keep a portion of its majesty as remembrance of the Hanging Stones. But in my mind, my instinct and love to see ruins and scenery untouched got over me. Maybe because technology nowadays allows us to possess a camera each and hence we could have pictures to remember our nice memories of trips to places that I forget people of the past lack these capability and luxury. But I would still have preferred an unspoiled world to go to. Haiz. But to have the Stonehenge for company as the sun sets is simply a luxury I can’t deny. By the time we got back to Bath, it was 5.10pm. Our coach departs at 6.30pm. Time for dinner. We went back to Wetherspoon. Again. My 4th dinner there in a week. I guess they could make me a VIP discount card or something. Ha. But can’t deny that their meals are pretty affordable for a pub/bar. Moreover they enforce non-smoking rules. Ha. Dinner was fun, the girls had vegetarian food. Well, maybe they feel a bit guilty as they did yesterday. Ha. Forget to mention that they order beef meals at Wetherspoon yesterday, so when I offered my chips to them they wouldn’t take any of it since I can’t take beef. Today, they ordered vegetarian food instead. Being considerate is just so endearing. Ha.
The coach ride back was pretty fun for the later half. 1st half wise, me n Shimmie were both sleeping. Poor Huijie, she couldn’t sleep because she was sensitive to changes in sound, touch and smell (according to her). The rumbling of the coach engines and its constant movement made it almost impossible for her to sleep. Moreover, despite the no smoking signs behind each seat, there was a big-bellied (likely to be pregnant) woman smoking in the toilet. Huijie noticed it, but I couldn’t smell it till a while later. Haiz. The 2nd half of the ride, all of us were awake and Huijie grew hungry. We had the remaining milk chocolate digestives. But boring as it is, Huijie came up with the idea of biting the digestives into shapes. Ha. Made me really full with the biscuits one after another. Huijie was shaping the digestives like a beaver, grinding the biscuits into shape only to fail time and again. Ha. Typical artist.
Anyway, I failed to mention this one last point about the 2 girls. Huijie was labelled a fluffy pink ball by Shimmie the moment she got off the train. Her pink coat and hair band were the cause of it. Meanwhile, because of the cold and freezing weather, Shimmie layered up like mad. Originally with 3 layers (2 tees and 1 coat), she added on her sleeping sweat and a woollen layer. According to her, she had 6 layers in all (no need to ask why), making her look like a blue bah zhang. Ha. Flanked by a fluffy pink ball and a blue bah zhang, I’m still the plain old Winston. Kudos.
No comments:
Post a Comment