Bathed in Bath

The Weekend started on Friday as soon as Al arrived from home from school. He's finished for the summer now and full of it.
Car pre loaded for Jac and I.  Pizza ordered online for the boys, goodbyes said and off we went. The three kids, home alone for the weekend.

ELVIS is ALIVE
Bags offloaded at eightish and a walk towards the town for a nose about. On the way back we went into a pub very close to our accommodation. It was rammed with suede shoes and dodgy greased up hairdos. Elvis isn't dead at all. He's doing the pubs around Bath every Friday night! The hot and humid atmosphere coupled with the long serving time led us to move on after the first drink in there. Just past our bed was another pub with only a few regulars in. One of these was a burly Scotsman still in his building site clothes and entertaining the bar dwellers with anecdotes and jokes. He was better than Elvis!

Bath through time
10:30am Walking tour of Bath led by a guide who did this for free! Excellent, 2hrs of enthusiastic knowledge for the handsome sum of £0. Absolute bargain. Even in the rain Our newly bought brolly never used as it was pretty busy everywhere around the town.

The Abbey
Into Bath Abbey, we had learnt about the building from outside and now time to visit the inside. A beautiful piece of architecture in itself with outstanding carvings of wood and stone inside it too. At £6 a head a tour to the top was a must for us, including a look at the back of the clock and the bells further up.

Tour Bus
An open topped ride around the town, bit of a damp one but sunshine too. The 'skyline' tour takes you on a 45 minute ride around the hills near Bath to see a few sites and overlook Bath itself.  We sat upstairs, at the back. It started to drizzle a bit half way round, and then rain properly but our new brolly saved us!

The Roman Baths
Recommended as this is what Bath is all about. You can guess what's in there but I wasn't ready for a phenomenon like the silence of the visitors. You pay to enter and are handed a talking box as a guide, it's like a phone so when you are at a number displayed on the wall dial it in and out comes an explanation of what you see.. .. .. Everyone was listening to their own personal guide and talking to know one, I didn't notice until about half way round. It looks like this.

Stone the Crows

After waking early from a night shift because it was too warm to sleep I was mowing the lawn. The storm across tne city clearly audible and heading my way, each pass of tne mower getting faster as it approached. Here was me on tne end of a long copper lead and the thunder getting ever louder. Lighting was noticeable because of it's lack of presence. Very few flashes but the thunder all around now, this is going to bib I posted on a social network What an understatement! I've never seen anything quite like it. Our garden looked like a golf range on 'free balls' day. The cars suffered though, a mirror cleanly knocked off our neighbours
Rovef, a back scrden smashed on a Fiesta down the road. I had to laugh at a neighbours greenhouse frame photo's on facebook, only one pane of glass left intact! The insurance assessors are going to call on us but like a lot of people, I think both of our cars will be written off.
Here's a photo of our nieghbours car bonnet.

Blowing out the cobwebs

After a rather wet week the racing at the local racecourse was cancelled. However, in the interests of corporate greed Ladies day and associated hospitality wasn't and so the day went ahead with the 'tote' being run on horses at another course and everybody watching on TV,s.
A free bar, bar 'shorts', and a 'free' lunch certainly helped in our decision to still attend. Many wine's later a call to big brother was needed to get Jac home. No way would she have made the coach journey without up-chucking along the way.
Less than a tenner down on the betting, good company,  not my taste but we had ABC, Belinda Carlisle and Heaven 17 on stage early in the evening, so all in all a good day out.

Today a walk around Bradgate park to blow out some alcohol soaked cobwebs. Here's a resident enjoying the lush grass.