An Overdue Trip South

It felt likes ages since I'd spent any real time in Leamington with the kids, and this week off had been booked since the new year (I put all my leave in for the year in January so I could space it out nicely). The plan was orignally to spend the weekends at each end of the break with the girls, a couple of days with my sister-in-law, Jenny, in London and the remainder with family and friends in Lincoln. Plans changed slightly though, as so many have in the last few months...

H drove us south as far as Bristol on the Sunday at the end of his week staying at Clacheranmor, and met up with his dad for a lift the rest of the way home, and I carried on to Charlotte's house. She and Hugo were away in Croatia, so I fed the cat and watered her allotment and then went to meet an old colleague and friend, Nicki, at the pub. We had a drink and lovely catch up for a couple of hours until the pub kicked us out! I got some slightly damp sleep due to the weather as the heatwave had arrived.

Monday morning I set off for London early and arrived with Jenny at 11.30am. After a cup of tea and a chat and then a delicious mixed salad lunch we headed into the city to the Tate Modern. The day was heating up with a forecast of 32 degrees and we were not enjoying the baking heat and sweaty underground experience! We saw a few of the free exhibitions at the Tate but I find them very preachy and not particularly enjoyable to look at. So we paid the extra and checked out the Tracey Emin collection. I’d seen the bed before, but the rest was a fascinating mixture of themes and styles, all telling the quite tragic story of her life. There were some interesting paintings in the mixture and the fact that they are expressions of her thoughts and feelings make them incredibly poignant. We had a really tasty dinner at TAS Pide - a sort of crispy based pizza - delicious. And then it was time for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe theatre. It’s a lovely venue - built as a close replica of the original and small enough that everyone gets a great view and can hear the actors without microphones. Luckily by this point it had started to cool and we were out of the sun. The performance was a slightly modern adaptation with smart costumes of suits and sequinned dresses and funky music and dancing and we loved it! We caught the train home, back out of London, and opened all the windows of the apartment to try and cool it down, to no avail - it was a sticky night of broken slumber!

Tuesday morning we spent an hour filming some videos to promote Jenny's latest novel - a fun, interview style, back and forth. I was out of my comfort zone but always honoured to be part of it. The day was set to be even hotter and the second we left the house for Amersham old town my clothes were damp and I could feel the moisture running down my back … and it was only 11am. The town is lovely and we walked along the river and down the pretty highstreet, past the old market hall and large church with unusual grave stones. We found a cafe with great air con and delicious huevos rancheros. We walked back through a beautiful memorial garden, then called in on Tom (Jenny’s son - my nephew) and his wife, Dawn, which was a lovely surprise. And then on into London again and a fun Uber taxi boat ride down the Thames to the Royal Observatory. Again we were sweltering and sweating as we wandered slowly and lethargically up the hill as the temperature broke the records again. The observatory is interesting and we got the essential photos of our feet either side of the prime meridian line along with tons of inspiration for a potential novel all about time. We found a cafe with air con again and had kombucha and cake in the relief of the cool air. This was my favourite part of seeing Jenny this week - we learnt more about each other in two days that we have in 25 years! I'm so blessed that she and I have stayed so closely in contact.

The final stop of the day was the long awaited sumo, sake and sushi night at Greenwich Borough Hall. It’s something I’ve wanted to see for years, and although more of a performance, the wrestlers were genuine retired sumo wrestlers and the venue looked great with Japanese lanterns and banners of the four fighters. The audience was split into four groups - each group to cheer on their allocated fighter. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. The bento box dinner wasn’t bad either. The venue was muggy but we ordered cold water which came with plenty of ice which was a godsend. There was a slight worry we might miss the last train home due to a cancellation but all worked out fine and we had frozen water bottles to look forward to when we got back. We had cold showers to cool down and then tried to sleep in the searing heat.

Wednesday I headed back to Leamington and arrived in time for lunch with Charlotte and Hugo. We caught up for a few hours and then I headed over to see Amber and Mat. If it was even possible it was even hotter than the last two days and I was beside myself with discomfort - I didn’t know what to do with myself. Amber had the perfect answer - a swim in the river! I stole H's hat out of the back of my car and we walked across the field from Old Milverton to the ruins of Guy's Cliff manor under a fireball sun. My goodness was a swim just what we needed - it really brought the core temperature down and made the furnace of a day bearable! The spot is pretty, with waterlilies in bloom and damselflies flitting round, a couple of protective swans and trees shading the water - and deep but busy with noisy teens on paddle boards and jumping off the rope swing - great to see people having a good time.

By the time we got dressed I had a message from H to ask if there was room for him to come over a day early - what a lovely surprise and a shame he wouldn't arrive in time to take Amber and Mat for all you can eat hotpot and Korean barbecue. We had an interesting meal out in Coventry at Daiu - a pay up front then scoff as much as you can buffet. It was lovely to spend a few hours with them and catch up - precious time as it is so short these days. They couldn't make dinner with Charlotte and Hugo the following day due to other commitments so I had to make the most of seeing them when I could. I dropped them back at home and by the time I got back to Charlotte's H was there and I just love that this is possible! He'd brought me beautiful flowers again - something that I will never get tired of...

Thursday was another scorcher and H and I headed out for a walk round Jephson gardens as it was just about cooler outside than in Charlotte's house. The park was empty at 9.30am and it was nice with a slight breeze. We walked through the glasshouse and the pump rooms museum and art gallery, but the spa water fountain was not working, although probably for the best as Leamington's spa water is salty and grim! Time for cake and milkshake (H)/smoothie (me), with enough spare for a cocktail at the Leif Tearooms before meeting Claire and Paul for a bento box lunch at Hayashi. I am enjoying introducing H to my interesting and ecclectic friends who, when I think about it, are all such lovely and long term friends and I realize just how lucky I am to have them all in my life! The plan was then to go and see Mandy, who H has met before in Bodelwyddan (see previous blog post), but she wasn't ready for us, so I suggested we head down to the river again to cool off. Having declined half a dozen times that day already H did join me in the water and enjoyed it! We had a nice cold drink in the Saxon Mill just across the bridge from the swimming spot and then headed to Mandy's for an hour catch up before going to meet Charlotte and Hugo at Thai Elephant where H and Hugo did their best to see who could eat the most. Afterwards we went to inspect the sink hole that had just opened up in the middle of Regent Street a couple of hours earlier - a fairly regular occurrence in Leamington, only to see an ambulance leaving with a woman in the back who had just fallen into it - difficult seeing as it was only about the size of a dinner plate and cordoned off... The night was another sauna, although H seemed unbothered.

We jumped in his car in the morning and set off for London - the epicentre of Hell's inferno! We stopped for snacks and a work call for H about half way and then carried on until we reached Ealing and found a nice pub on a quiet street with a fan that we could sit in front of for an hour while we waited for our allocated check in time of 3pm at the Airbnb. And imagine how excited I was to find an air con unit in the apartment! The apartment was beautiful - small but having everything we needed and nice and cold once the air con was turned on. What a relief. Once we were sufficiently chilled and rehydrated we went for a walk down Kensington high street to see what was around (all a bit posh for us) and find some dinner. The first pub was alright but ribs to share was £95! So we went round the corner to a much more reasonable place that did a very good burger and some nice fish for a decent price tag. Back at the apartment we snuggled up and watched a film for the rest of the evening until I couldn't stay awake any more.

Saturday was the day of the Garth Brooks concert and, thank the Lord, a haze was developing in the sky. We put on our country clothes and suntan lotion so we didn't fry (H factor 15 and me factor 50) and went for a wander round the Kensington antiques market and slightly odd and very quiet worldcup funday. Then we edged towards the north entrance of Hyde Park, but with time to kill we found a cool pub called The Champion for another amazing lunch - watermelon and crispy duck salad for me. We picked up a bottle of water and ice creams at a petrol station, which melted within seconds in the scorching heat. Luckily the haze had increased and kept the worst of the baking sun off us. I've been to one concert before in Hyde Park and it was just a sea of people and I was a bit nervous about getting seperated as we would be in there from about 2.30-10.30pm. In the end it wasn't as busy as I expected, despite being billed as the biggest 'BST presents' festival so far. All the support acts were outstanding and I recognised a few of the songs, which is always nice - I think I'm being slowly brainwashed into a country cult! We had a good spot on the grass (H took off his shirt for me to sit on as I was wearing white!) and we could sit down during the early acts and then between acts later on - gettig too old to be on my feet all day! There were decent food stalls and plenty of drink outlets and free water stations - it was really well organised. I absolutely loved Garth Brooks, as I knew I would - I knew all but two songs enough to sing along and he played all my favourites - The River (which always makes me cry because it's about hope), The Thunder Rolls and one where the first verse lyrics remind me of myself - That Summer. It was such a lovely, chilled atmosphere and of course being with H made it extra special.

Sunday was home time and as we drove north it got cooler with every mile that passed. We were back in Leamington by late morning and we had a great breakfast at Trof - the chilli scrambled eggs was incredible! Then back to Charlotte's to collect my car and we said goodbye for another two and a half weeks. I collected my beautiful flowers from H off Charlotte's dining table and said goodbye to her and Hugo too and set off home to Scotland where it was a perfect and very much appreciated 14 degrees!