Hypermobility

Oops, sorry about that week-long absence, there; I have a couple of big scary end of January deadlines and last week kind of got away from me. But the things that need to be done are nearly done; on Friday it becomes February, and everything starts to look a lot brighter. Hurrah!

I spent last weekend down in the Wye Valley, where my parents are currently living in a village known for nothing other than having, apparently, Wales’s “first and finest restaurant with rooms,” the Crown at Whitebrook. It was all pleasantly bucolic and relaxing, though as ever the vagaries of British rail transport threatened to spoil it; in accordance with my new year’s resolutions I resisted the temptation of Easyjet flights from Glasgow to Bristol and took the train, only to find a number of discrepancies between the tickets I’d booked at the Trainline and the trains that were actually running, and a twenty minute delay coming out of Glasgow ended up with me missing all my connections and being stuck for an hour in Crewe, only arriving into Abergavenny (not, in fact, where I was trying to go) at quarter to midnight, having been on trains and in train stations for upwards of eight hours. I am not sure how long this resolution is going to last, I’m afraid.

But anyhow! When I go down to see my parents (or aunt and uncle, who also live there) we generally spend our time eating, drinking and having desultory walks, but there is a lot to see and do around there, not least Offa’s Dyke path, Tintern Abbey, the Sculpture Trail near Coleford (which I am very ashamed that I have never done), and the Severn Bore (which I have also never seen; I do love the fact that the website linked there describes the Severn Bore as “one of Britain’s few truly spectacular natural phenomena”; way to accept our overwhelming mediocrity, there!) and it’s the sort of place that I’d probably be much more impressed by had I not visited it so often as I was growing up. Highly recommended for a within-UK holiday.

I am going to try and update more often, now that the immediate January crunch is (just about) over. You have been warned.

So I am back from my most recent travels and it is long past time for an update, though I have been putting it off until all my photos were uploaded. However, uploading to flickr is taking an age (unexpectedly – I’ve never had problems with them before, and incidentally, you may not want to click on that link unless you’re prepared to wade through literally thousands of untitled and uncaptioned photos – it’s in progress, honest), and so I may as well get on with things.

I left Glasgow on September 22nd for the first, and least glamorous, destination on my journey: Knutsford, Cheshire, for the wedding of a friend. I’d never been to Cheshire before and to be honest was not enormously excited (though I was excited about the wedding), as the image in my head was of untrammelled suburbia, punctuated with footballers’ mansions and tedious commuter monstrosities. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Knutsford itself, which, in addition to being your typical slightly-posh Middle English small town, has a rather bizarre collection of Art Nouveau architecture, including the freakishly opulent Belle Epoque restaurant and hotel, where the wedding was – excellent food, and good just to look at. Too pricey for us in terms of accommodation, though, and we stayed at the Angel Inn down the road (scroll down), which was perfectly serviceable, despite giving Tom the Small Town Fear. Man Zen for decent Chinese food, too.

Perhaps most usefully, Knutsford is also only 20 minutes by car from Manchester Airport, from whence I was flying to Sydney the morning out of the wedding, and therefore made an infinitely preferable alternative to a grim airport hotel. Would visit again. Probably.