The floor at The Old Priory has a serious slope on it. I mentioned that yesterday but I didn’t mention that it slopes in different directions depending on where you are in the room.
For instance, the bed slopes back towards the wall it is against to the extent that when you lie down, your feet are higher than your head. This has the effect of sleeping upside down. Given I am prone to gastric reflux this is not good. It would mean a night of little sleep and awful heartburn.
The good thing about having a massive bed is that one person can sleep one way while the other sleeps the opposite. I had to use a chair to prop up the pillows but otherwise, I had a lovely nights sleep. Mirinda, sleeping down the slope also slept well.
The bathroom, while lovely, also slopes. It’s so bad that there’s a note about being careful not to flood the room because the water will go in the opposite direction of the plug hole. And the water pressure is so strong that this is almost inevitable.
I’m making it sound awful but actually we rather enjoyed staying at the Old Priory. Melody, our hostess, was very jolly and genuinely interested in what her guests were doing. And breakfast (by Melody’s husband Matthew) was possibly the best scrambled eggs and smoked salmon I have ever had.
We spent the morning working. Mirinda busy coding in the garden while I typed up yesterday’s post and then researching some more dead soldiers. For a break, I decided to go and check out the church next door.
It turned out the church next door was closed so, instead, I went to the deli opposite the church next door and bought some seriously impressive looking cheese and some big fat olives. So much nicer than a locked church.
Then, eventually, we set off for Sophie’s house.
We were quite surprised by the rough looking area where the house is. All of the houses in her street look like they have been the victims of neglect for longer than can be remembered. The house itself needs quite a bit of work given the fact that the previous owners appeared to have had no taste and three very smelly dogs. Four if you count the cement, cigar smoking, bulldog left at the front door.
There is a very long back garden – longer than ours by another 50 feet but about a third the width.
She has a lot of Grand Design like plans for improving the place including putting a gym in the presently dilapidated looking garage, a decked seating/eating area and a hot tub. She told me to take plenty of photos because these changes were going to happen over the next few months and we wouldn’t recognise it upon our next visit.
Having completed the whole tour (including a peek inside Tom’s secret space in the wall of Sophie’s bedroom) we sat down to a lovely lunch and general chat.
Afterwards we took Boris for a walk to the football ground and round.
After returning to the house, having scaled the heady heights of a back road, we settled down for a coffee/tea before Sophie and Mirinda set off for another walk. I’m assuming this walk was revenge for all the fields that Mirinda has made Sophie trudge over with the girls.
This is usually the signal for Tom and me to watch a movie however we spent the time talking about special effects rather than watching them. One of the opinions expressed by us both was that special effects can sometimes completely ruin a movie. I don’t generally just chat with Tom and I was rather pleasantly surprised at the breadth of his Hobbit knowledge as well as his rather strong opinions.
I also spent a lot of time playing with the manic Boris, renewing our relationship. I love wrestling with a big dog. Also, he seems to have developed the adorable habit of dancing with anyone who visits the house. He will put his front paws on your shoulders and wiggle his butt to the music in his head while you foxtrot. Perhaps he’s practising for Dancing with the (Dog) Stars.
Before dinner we all had a bit of a chat while Tom played X-Box on the enormous TV. At one point he was playing a game called ‘Cluster Truck’ which is an odd choice of game given the actual name is somewhat age restricted.
Dinner was delicious (as usual) but it was soon time to head back to the Old Priory and our sloping room.
A lovely day, well spent.
