Easter Hols- Day 8

I know these are getting shorter and shorter; but I'm staying up later and later!

Today was a great day. It was a bank holiday (Easter Monday), so Bev and Jenny were off work so we all spent the day together. We headed off in the morning to Torrington, to a historical site where the workers/tour guides dress up in historical costumes and teach visitors about the Torrington battle and the English civil war and life around 1649. It was really cool!

Hahaha why are they only reminding the disabled parkers? Mysterious, Torrington....very mysterious...

Bev, trying on some armour from 1646...booo blur :(

 

After our 2 hour tour or so, we had a picnic! But because it was so windy/rainy/cold outside, we had a picnic in the car, all 5 of us! It was so cozy and nice! We pulled the car over to a nice spot, right near a big dropoff, so that we had a big nice view of the green countryside and the town of Torrington below. It was great!

Then we had a few hours to kill before we were going to meet with some church people for a social gathering and this "skittles" event that they had all been telling me about (I eventually found out that they weren't talking about the candy)...so to spend the time away, we stopped at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden Rosemoor, in greater Torrington. Since the cold spell has come at such a brutal time in the plant world. a lot of the flowers were wilted, brown, or simply just not budded/grown at all. I took some nice pictures of the ones that looked nice, but unfortunately there was so much that I knew would look 100x better in the summer when the flowers are all bloomed and full of life. 

Between the gardens and the pub, we stopped at a little cafe for a bite to eat and a hot chocolate. I told them all some riddles/puzzles, which was fun, and we got laughing/chit chatting away.

 

After we headed out of there, we headed to a pub for a church-related social evening where I discovered the joys of skittles. Basically, skittles is like DIY bowling. I was nervous, because basically it was one aisle of wood for the alley to roll the ball down, and then one row of tables all along the alley. Along the side of the alley is a thick black tube (which looks like the stuff that sometimes covers pipes or sewage links? I dont know, I could be making that up...) that is supported in a way that its on a slant so that the balls are placed back in it and roll back to the person who's turn it is. And then each person gets called up one by one to take 3 shots trying to knock down as many of the 9 'pins' set up at the front (not really shaped like normal bowling pins, though). It was basically 10 pin bowling. But anyway, so my turn eventually comes, and I've been trying to watch everyone to see how they do it, and how they release it, and what tactics look good and everything, right?

So I get up there, and I whip the first 2 balls down the alley and get 8 of the 9 pins down -- not to shabby, eh? And THEN, just as I was getting confident....on my third ball, as if it was slow motion, I chucked it down the aisle really hard and it hit the piece of wood supporting the tube that returns the balls, and the tube falls onto the ground with a huge thud!! AHHH! So embarassing. Yet typical.

We spent the evening socializing with friends from their church; eating and drinking and playing pool (with only red and yellow balls instead of striped/solids with numbers). 

We came back around 11:30 or so and I taught Anna some piano and then we played crib! Woooo! Now I am so tired that I'm typing some of this with my eyes closed....no joke. Must. Go. Now.

P.S. I only JUST discovered today that V for Vendetta is based on Guy Fawkes. Am I daft? Uups. (thats my new way of saying 'oops', because its the way that Anna says it, and I like it better.)

Until Next Time,

Beckers

xxx