Hello all - and welcome back. Here's the news from this week.
Toby: I had a great week at work - everything finally started to 'click'. I was busy all week and felt very productive and like I was actually contributing rather than just interrupting people with questions all the time. Monday was the first day I wasn't timed out of our accounting software (which logs you out after about ˝ hour of not being used) - that means I was using it all day! I'm also getting a clearer picture of my role over the next 2 years which is nice. I do feel like I have something to contribute. Blah blah blah, enough about work!
Tom and I did join the health club. Tom had his appt. with the trainer who helped devise an exercise program for him. My appointment was rescheduled twice and now won't happen until Tuesday night. I'll get there. I did go once and do some aerobic stuff on my own. I don't know about Tom, but I am way out of shape and looking forward to being fit again.
On Friday night we watched a new British sitcom - The Book Group. It is a very quirky comedy about a young American woman in London who starts a book club in order to meet people. She's fairly uptight (not a great portrayal of Americans!), but some of her reactions to the other members of the group and the Britishisms are pretty funny.
On Saturday, we drove down to Bath for the weekend. It's a really pretty town in a valley (sorry no picture of it from up above) with lots of history. Tom took lots of pictures so you can get a feel for it. I'll let him tell you about most of it.
(A mix of Tom and Toby writing from here on - lots of pictures below, make sure to take a look!)
There's tons of history in Bath. I'll leave you to read more about it's history at http://www.visitbath.co.uk/history.html. The most interesting to me (Tom) is that of the Romans (from that web page):
…From AD 43 the Romans started the development of Bath. The city was located on one of the Roman's principal roads, the Fosse Way, which stretched from Exeter to the Humber. The Romans developed Bath as a city of recreation, rather than a garrison, and built around the hot springs a sophisticated series of baths used for bathing and curative purposes. A temple, dedicated to the goddess Minerva, was built alongside the baths and this area formed the centre of Aquae Sulis.
The first place we stopped was at the Jane Austen Centre - a museum dedicated to her life in Bath. She grew up not far from Bath but spent a number of years there, first as a visitor (when she loved it) and then as a resident with her family (when she didn't like it). Apparently, she was not much of a city girl. In her first book (Northranger Abbey) she speaks fondly of Bath because it was written when she was visiting. In Persuasion, written after she had lived there, Bath doesn't fare as well. It was interesting to hear about her life and how things related to her books. I think Northranger Abbey is the only one of her 6 books that I (Toby) haven't read so I bought a copy.
Onto the Roman Bath, where the ancient hot springs and bath house are located. It was an excellent self-guided tour, complete with audio guide. You can see in the pictures the bath, now green because of algae - the Romans had a roof over it, and the sun did not promote algae growth. And, you can (kind of) see the bubbling gases coming out of the hot water, and the floor pillars that held up the floor in the hot room. Lots of stone carvings too. We even tasted the hot spring water - it was very metallic tasting, and warm. A strange combination that didn't appeal to me (Tom). It's claimed to have healing powers too so hopefully we're now immune from sickness for a while.
Next we stopped in the Bath Abbey (right next door to the baths). Plenty of history there, and quite an impressive structure. After that, we walked around a lot just enjoying the place. Really a lovely town.
As we made our way back to the car park, we passed a wedding. The bride and groom, both dressed in purple, were on the top of an open-top double decker bus with the minister (or something) while the guests were all on the grass in front of the Royal Cresent watching them take their vows. We arrived just as they were pronounced husband and wife and got to hear the best man's toast which was very funny.
| A few pictures from Bath. Click on one to see a larger version. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
) Royal Crescent (a posh place to live) |
) Jane Austen Centre |
) Bath Abbey |
) Abbey seen from baths. |
) Baths from above. |
) Baths from ground level. |
) Doors to Abbey |
) Georgian statues at the bath |
) Floor support columns (so they could heat the floor. |
) Stonework from original buildings |
) Bath street scene |
) Foundation of original buildings |
) Outflow from hot spring |
) Tom and Toby at the bath |
) Plan of Roman Baths. |
) Bubbles in the hot spring (look closely!) |
) Inside the Bath Abbey |
) Flowerbeds |
) People getting married on the tourbus |
|
Although I (Toby) do believe our wedding was perfect, this is the kind of wedding I was hoping for before we knew we only had a week to get married! For those of you who kept asking "what do you mean by 'fun and different'?" - well, getting married on top of a tour bus dressed in purple would have qualified! It was really quite a sight. Good luck Pipper (Pepper?) and Paul!
We spent the night in a lovely hotel near Bath, recommended by an ESRI person. ESRI people are like old friends there - once they realized we were from ESRI, they upgraded our room. We had a great dinner there - Toby had lamb, I had sea bass. My only mistake was coffee with dessert at 9:30 p.m. Needless to say, I (Tom) did a bit of tossing and turning in bed last night.
Today (Sunday), we drove back through Avebury. Avebury is known for it's stone circles; much like Stonehenge but on a smaller scale. Avebury stone circles are thought to have been constructed in neolithic times between 2500 to 2000 BC. The Beaker people, so called after their pottery, are thought to have played a major role in their formation, as they did with Stonehenge. We walked the stone circle and had a walk through the small town. Very interesting indeed. We'll get to Stonehenge eventually, but this was interesting too and not as crowded/touristy.
| A few pictures from Avebury. Click on one to see a larger version. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
) Circle stones at Avebury |
) More circle stones |
) Thatch-roof house |
|
) Sheep and circle stones |
) Toby and her favourite stone |
) Tom and his favourite stone |
|
One more stop on the way home to see the White Horse carved into the cliff at Uffington. It's one of 8 around the area. The White Horse is cut out of the turf on the chalky upper slopes of Uffington Castle near to the Ridgeway. It is 374 feet long. The Uffington white horse is Britain's oldest and most famous hill figure at 2,000 to 3,000 years old. We took some pictures, but I stole one from the web, so you could actually see it!
| A few pictures from Uffington. Click on one to see a larger version. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
) White horse at Uffington |
) Good picture of white horse (found on web) |
) Panorama view from horse hillside (big!) |
|
We also joined The National Trust today, a land preservation society here in Britain. Thought we'd be good citizens and contribute to the cause. Also it gets us free admission to a number of gardens and museums and historical homes.
There's lots of yellow flowering crops in the fields these days. Turns out it is rapeseed, used mainly to make canola oil. Very pretty.
Back home to Oxford for a relaxing late afternoon of reading the Sunday paper and writing this update.
Big thanks to Toby for the great birthday present - she framed the panorama of Ellisville for me - it will look wonderful hanging on our apartment wall - a reminder of home and summer.
Bits and Bobs:)
99.9% of motorcycle riders in England all wear full leather (?) jumpsuits and gloves. I think in America it's more like 2% who wear such things. It'd be easy to spot a British biker in America (or at least Boston) if for no other reason than that piece of clothing.
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