a rather pleasant day
This is our second day in England, staying with my aunt Serena at her marvellous home in Beccles, the quaintest town I’ve ever seen. Yesterday we arrived at Heathrow early in the morning, bought a winter jacket for Casey, and drove back to Beccles. Casey offered to make spaghetti with minced beef. The three of us ate dinner with wine and when we were finished, we headed off to a local pub and to Casey’s delight, were served pints of locally brewed beer. This morning I had what seemed like the most luxurious shower money can buy, seeing as how in the last three months, I bathed with cold water and often it was from a jerrycan. Vanity got the best of me when I realized my aunt had a blow dryer and straightener, commodities I had not even touched in Uganda.
When the three of us were clean and had eaten until our heart’s content, we headed to town. Aunt Serena needed to go to her bucher’s so Casey and I took the opportunity to have a gander. The narrow streets were lined with local shops and there were remnants of earlier times such as a 400 year old bell tower, where the previous night had the bells harmoniously ringing throughout the night in preparation for Christmas. The entire experience was, in our eyes, quintessentially English. I’ve also decided that I’m living here at some point in my life.
We spent the afternoon in Southwold, a beautiful (and rather posh) community right on the North Sea. The community’s architecture was breathtaking and obviously found no where in Canada. The most interesting part of the community was actually not the 400 year old manors, but instead, small beach huts lined up around the beach. Aunt Serena told us that these colourful huts were meant to store beach supplies and serve as a shelter in the day. They had no insulation, were not big enough for a bed, and had no bathroom. They literally looked like colourful garden sheds on the beach. What I found alarming was that the average price for one was anywhere between 40 and 60,000 pounds. The owners of the huts, therefore, instead of looking like fools carrying an endless amount of chairs, beach toys and children from the car, can leisurely and effortlessly walk to the beach in four inch heels and sit in front of their beach hut.
Though it was quite windy, we had a fantastic day. Tonight aunt Serena is making a traditional British dinner, toad-in-the-hole. I just finished two mincemeat pies and my third tea of the day. Britain is great. Oh and I saw two pheasants.
Sarah
