Days 17 & 18 - Lyme Regis

Day Seventeen

The day began slowly. We stayed on the couch for a while, then managed to get ready after 10am and plod our way down to the Cobb, an artificial harbour constructed in the 19^th century.

The Cobb has stone-built piers either side of an opening that warns boats to be “DEAD SLOW”. It has been repaired and improved since Jane Austen visited this place, but a lot of it she would have found familiar. Once we descended the steep hill and negotiated some traffic, we saw it for ourselves.

It was very windy this morning, so my hair went everywhere and The Husband pointed out the sign cautioning us not to go onto highest part of the Cobb (it sloped, could get quite slippery and had no railing between pier and undulating sea).

Take a stroll into the Regency era

The view, though, was lovely so I had to get up there, however briefly – and briefly it was, as I do not like to worry The Husband (he is not a strong swimmer).

Clouds smeared the horizon, but it was still pleasant and I must have uttered the word “beautiful” at least 6 times.

Lyme Regis isn’t that different from any other English seaside town I’ve visited; however, it has its place in literary history. Much like Whitby in that respect, I suppose. Whitby was made famous by Bram Stoker; here it was Jane Austen.

I looked at some stairs on the pier and fancied that they were the ones that Louisa fell down in Persuasion. Unlikely, though, and “Granny’s Teeth” certainly didn’t qualify either – these steps had the appearance of rotted, jagged teeth worn to the gum – for they came after Jane Austen’s visit to Lyme (Regis). They were probably added because of her book.

Granny's Teeth

We walked along the beach (sand was divided from pebbles by a cement break) and then headed back up the hill towards our home, albeit on a different road than the one we’d used on our way down to the water earlier.

We passed by Pyne House, 10 Broad Street, where Jane Austen is said to have stayed. It was much smaller than I expected. But beside it was a similarly small shop boasting that it was “bigger on the inside”. That, and Pyne House’s blue door, made me exclaim, “It’s a TARDIS!”

Fancy that, Jane Austen in a TARDIS.

For lunch, we went to a pasty shop (there were three of them on the same stretch of road!). Good food – and a large hot chocolate – revived me.

In my clutches, from earlier browsing, I had fudge and gemstone jewellery. I can’t help it! They are my vices! And I like quaint shops in quaint towns. Plus, I needed that pendant to match two sets of earrings I own. And as for the earrings I bought – I do not have any that are blue goldstone! Well, I do now.

Back “home” to relax.

PS: Tesco is still closed! They looked to be dismantling the whole shop.

***

Day Eighteen

A day of relaxation. We did nothing until lunchtime, when we again sought sustenance in The Cornish Bakery. I love pasties! Oh how I will miss munching through one before attacking a frothy hot chocolate.

Most of the day has been spent watching Sailor Moon. Lol. I am really enjoying it.

Idle hands lead to relaxation

Day 7 - Nokia

After a late night (noisy neighbours, quietened only by intervention from reception), we were confronted with a packed breakfast room. Used to sharing this space with 2-4 other souls, we were now fighting almost 100 of them. Queues for juice and all the good food had been sourced by locusts in sports uniforms (and their parents). We escaped to a laundromat in the outskirts of Tampere. Now used to the cold, I only wore on jumper over my shirt.

Woefully unprepared to translate Finnish, we weren’t sure which machine was a dryer and which one wasn’t. We fed 6 euro into a washer only to cancel it and lose our money, panicked that it had started turning because that’s what a dryer does, right? 6 more euros restarted it. Then I discovered that we had free wifi and used that to translate signs, successfully locating the dryers. An elderly couple tried to help us, but they only knew Finnish. Nice people, though. They left when their rugs were washed, presumably to hang them up at home.

I chatted to my brother, Cazy, on my phone and then rang Mum. When I wasn’t conversing, I was reading a book or breaking a 50 euro note at the K-Market downstairs from the laundromat.

Our washing done, we left some euro poorer and discovered that, in our 90-minute absence, our room had already been cleaned! And all the crowds were checking out, including our irritating neighbours. Thank goodness!

We had lunch downstairs (using numbers instead of words to order), then raced off to see S and hopefully spot some squirrels. Alas, not many of those. So we played the Dresden Files game for ages, S and I reminisced about how we met on a Stargate fansite in 2005, and I set up the GoPro to catch squirrels (I don’t know if I caught any!). I was loathe to leave. I really enjoy my time with S. I only managed to drag myself away by deciding to see her tomorrow!

I did, in fact, capture a squirrel!

Back “home” via Hesberger (lol no way was I going back to Subway).

Days 12, 13 & 14: Relaxing in Hamilton

Day 12

Nothing much to report - day of relaxation. When we went out for breakfast, a man on a skateboard sailed past on the “sidewalk”, pushing a trolley full of junk. Briefly wondered if we’d stumbled into alternate Hill Valley.

Nice wrap for lunch.

…yeah that’s the highlight! Rained a lot. Found the best of two chocolate shops - this after changing all our USD to CAD because we have spent way too much money here.

***

Day 13

Another relaxing day. Attempted to arrange to meet our friends but we heard that one of them had had a family emergency. My fiancé and I shopped for a bit then saw Ant-Man at the local cinema - sadly an average film. We ate at the burger place again (my Sk8er Boi burger had peanut butter on it - somehow it tasted amazing!).

Will be leaving tomorrow - glad I no longer have to run the gauntlet of beggars and people intruding on my space for change.

***

Day 14

With our check out extended to 2pm, we had a luxurious sleep in (9am) which I needed after wedding guests next door yammered away past 4am. We had apple danishes from the previous night for breakfast, followed by lunch.

Once everything was ready, we farewelled our relaxing abode and called a taxi. Our driver was as aggressive as a New Yorker, though his vehicle was equipped with shit brakes (how we did not cause a pile up on the motorway, I do not know). However, he retained a particular Canadian habit. Where most taxi drivers would be stoically silent, he kept saying, “Sorry.”

We had to wait for ages in a stationary queue because British Airways workers do not start until exactly 3 hours before the flight.

Once past screening, we enjoyed Tim Hortons for the very last time then went to our gate where you could use iPads to surf the internet and order food right to your table. I must have looked so sad when the waiter said they were out of blueberry cream cheese danishes (my fiancé said I looked miserable) that they brought it in from elsewhere in the airport!

Boarded at 6pm and took off early! Many seats empty. Curled up against my fiancé and managed to sleep…

Day 9: Hamilton

A much needed day of rest. We left at 8am for a nearby cafe, huddled beneath an umbrella. It poured. And poured. And poured. A good day to fall on our “laundry” day. The rain had chased away other customers, so we had the cafe to ourselves. A Nutella bagel was on my agenda - it seemed nuttier somehow. Loved it! Nutella seems to be a bit of thing here at the moment. The Canadian workers in the cafe were making liberal use of the word “eh”.

All the Nutella you can handle!

Then it was time for the laundry expedition! James Street North seemed much longer than we recalled and I grew more irritable with each intersection that dared cross our path. Finally we got to the laundromat. It had two rooms lined with industrial dryers and washes - some of the latter were huge, ranging from single load to double load to triple load (we used this one) to maxi load. The place felt like a sauna.

We fed our quarters in then passed the time. Read books. Wrote postcards. Observed a dude empty someone else’s washing, presumably from his favourite machine as there were many others available. Ascertained they were not his owing to frilly knickers and two confused women who came to claim them.

Washer - 23 minutes. Dryer - 32 + 18 minutes. All done!

The rain had eased so I foolishly thought that we could see Dundurn Castle today. The torrents were back as we bought bus tokens from a convenience store and made our way to James St South. We decided instead to stay put and bought the newly released Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee before having lunch at some cafe before returning to hover while our room was cleaned.

Read Go Set A Watchman. Very impressed but it was also an uncomfortable read.