Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 May 2004 21:32:31
We really should have Bank Holidays more often - today was lovely, but I think I'll need a few more before my batteries feel totally recharged. I can't believe there's no more now till August!
I started the day at the gym (I've put on another half kilo, argh, where is it all coming from?), and then this afternoon I went with a friend for a drive to Tenterden and Smallhythe in Kent. Very much Bank Holiday Central, but really very pleasant. I was thinking about how the Kent countryside, though beautiful, is very different from the (also beautiful) countryside up north - Kent is more quaint, olde worlde, cottages with climbing roses kind of beautiful, whereas up north it's more rough and raw beauty. Tenterden is one of the stops on the Bluebell steam railway, so we had a quick look at the trains (Smudgie's boys would have loved it) before moving on to Smallhythe which used to be a Royal Dock town in Tudor times (although it's now some way from the sea). After a quick look round the nearby Tenterden vineyard (where I sadly couldn't do any wine-tasting as I was driving - my friend's verdict was that the white was lovely but red not very good) and then the village's lovely Tudor church, we went for a walk along what would have been the old shoreline. Glorious sunshine, and I wished I had my pastels with me, it was beautiful. Not that I would have been able to do it any justice. We finished the day by calling in on some people whom Dave had met through an astronomy chatroom (he's into telescopes and stuff), a wonderfully eccentric retired couple whose garden was full of telescopes and who were totally hilarious. Now I'm home I can't believe it's work again tomorrow already. Even long weekends seem to go so so quickly.