This morning I was rudely awoken by the bi-verbal screech of some sort of foreign devil of a bird. It started with a screech then ended with the deep vibrations of the fog horn that started life aboard the Titanic. Disconcerting when it’s sitting on the end of your bed staring down into your eyes and making ridiculous sounds. I tried shooing it away but it just laughed.
Rude awakening
Then I really woke up and realised the odd creature was flying over the garden making a frightful racket. I decided it was trying to tell me something and went to make coffee. Actually that works. If you screech the prefix “coff” then deeply fog horn the suffix “ee”, it sounds pretty much like the bird.
Not that it was early. I have been sleeping in so far; something very rare! The bird roused me around 8:30.
I sat around typing while Mirinda enjoyed her Jacuzzi (this time without bubbles) and tea.
My first class at uni is tonight, so our first stop was at Winchester station for a timetable. This mission accomplished, we found a parking station then, for reasons best not gone into, I went to buy a new mobile phone. So it was off to Phones 4 U where I picked up a bargain of a phone for £30! I then managed to lose Mirinda for a bit. Reunited, we sat in Café Nero for a cappuccino & a latte.
After a short debate, it was decided we’d have a Cornish pasty each for lunch in the cathedral precinct which Mirinda insists on calling The Close. Leaning up against the chain smoking Elizabeth Cover’s table top tomb, we indulged in one of Cornwall’s greatest exports each (mine was lamb & mint, Mirinda had steak & stilton). It was a lovely day and so the grass was full of people, dogs and butts.
Gaz and Elizabeth Glover's grave
After a drive back to the apartment for me to change, it was back into Winchester for me to get the train to Guildford. The plan was for Mirinda to meet the 10:33 train with me on it but when I arrived, a text awaited me saying “Get taxi. 2 scary“. And so I hopped aboard a Winchester cab, delighting the driver with a fantastic fare.
In order to understand why it was ‘2 scary’ you have to realise that Avington House is in the middle of nowhere. There are no lights anywhere. The car is parked up the hill and behind the church. In order to reach the car, one has to try and reach it over the wide open spaces of the blackened lawn. There was no moon. Nuff said.
