Of Bats and Reservoirs

Lots has been happening and going on this end of the week....

On Thursday we (Mum, Kathy, Adam, Adam's friend Nick and I) drove to Street in Somerset. Mum wanted to go and visit, of all things, the Shoe Museum (Street is where the company Clarks began)... apparently as research for something she is writing. Adam, Nick and I, not being entirely enthusiastic about the prospect of spending such a beautiful day in a Shoe Museum, walked the mile or so to Glastonbury. And in true fashion, rather than going to Glastonbury for the festival, as most people our age would have gone for, we went to Glastonbury Abbey (or the ruins of), which was worthwhile in an entirely different way. Brilliant place, lots and lots of history, including apparently being the site of the first Christian church on British soil... but more excitingly, and weirdly, I rescued a bat!!! In the crypt (yes, the crypt... apparently the bat was a fan of cliche...) this little bat was crawling around, at risk of being trampled underfoot by the many visitors to the Abbey. Eventually, this bat had started crawling up the trousers of a lady, who was on crutches, and so had no hands or ability to remove it. So I did (having asked first, of course). Anyway, so it was that I found myself clutching this little bat. Which was crawling over my hands, clinging on with its little claws. You should be proud, who knew I had the guts! I then deposited said bat in an area of the crypt which was away from public access, and watched it crawl off to the nearest dark corner. All together a very weird experience. The whole day was a little weird to be honest. Adam and I ended up having a huge argument with Mum in the evening, which was weird, ended weirdly and is just screwed up. But yeah, sorted now, so nevermind.

Then, yesterday, some old old friends of the family, Diana (mum's best friend), and her son Zander (Adam's age) came to stay for the weekend with Diana's brother (Andy, who we have met before but havent seen in years because he now lives in Chile on a mountain), and his Chilean wife Beni (who doesnt speak much English) and their absolutely adorable, cutest thing in the world, 2 yr old daughter Isadora. Iz is at the age where she is saying some words, though not in sentence form. Half of these words are Spanish, half are English... It is so sweet to see a little 2yr old speaking spanish.

Very very sweet. Anyway, so last night they arrived and we gradually got quite drunk. Ended up sleeping in a big tent in our garden (my bed was commandeered for visitors) with Adam, Nick and Zander, having stayed up talking and drinking and listening to music at 4.30am. That would have been ok if the tent hadnt got so scorchingly hot that I had to get up at 8am just to get out of the heat. So I spent a couple hours watching children's TV, which has declined an awful lot in the last 10 yrs!!! A big breakfast helped. Then spent rest of the morning playing table tennis.

This afternoon we went to Chagford, had a drink (non alcoholic!) at the pub, at which they were playing live folksy music which was quite cool. Then wandered around the village, bought a picnic, and drove up to Fernworthy Reservoir for a 4pm lunch and walk. Was very nice, Fernworthy is a trully beautiful place.


Anyways, lots of fun, and I am so tired I'm afraid I havent presented it in a particularly interesting way. Oh well, serves you right for reading all this way...

xxx