Shop displays

Aylesbury shopping is getting a bit limited in that there are fewer small shops to choose from. There are bigger shops like BHS, Beatties and Woolworths, and the ubiquitous supermarkets. I'm glad to say that a new health store has opened in Bourbon Street, just opposite the side entrance to Friars Square. Down that same street there's a bridal shop, that last week had one of the most striking displays I've seen for ages. I noticed other people stop to look too. This week's isn't as striking - I was too late to photograph last week's.

Uncle Bill's drawing

Recently looking through my family history files I came across this cartoon that U. Bill did of me in June 1963. I'm wearing my school velour hat, which was a very expensive piece of uniform. The occasion that elicited this cartoon was that I'd got into this school. The eleven plus system at the time would pay a grant to the direct grant schools for all the children that the authority deemed had passed the eleven plus. I'd taken the 11+ but the county education authority did not deem me suitable for grammar school. However, such schools would still take suitable children, if the school liked them and the parents were willing to pay, something like £20 a term. The school liked me; I got in. To celebrate my success, U. Bill, who the family considered had the fewest brains, drew me this picture and wrote me this ode:

I knew you'd pass this Exam without any fuss or flurry.
I told you in the Café that you had no need to worry.
It was plain to me the Convent would accept you back but still
How could they have refused you when you've brains like Uncle Bill!

Cork tour

Daughter was tired so we took our time leaving today. We passed on our maps, guides and spare food to people in the hostel. I had a printout of the spec for the eeepc (I've just bought one, and left that for the woman C, who had been fascinated by it. She said that she was sorting out things, starting afresh I think, and thinking creatively about how to set up her own business in event management, so an eeepc would suit her situation well.

We caught the round-town bus up to the gaol, where they sentenced us to serve time and charged us 6 euro. Cork gaol is just as forbidding a place as any other gaol, but rather cold too. Its history is that it served as a prison for both men and women since before the 19^th century. It doesn't seem to have been overcrowded and the first Catholic governor, Murphy, seems to have been a sympathetic man who managed both the scoundrels and the political prisoners.

The bus tour included a guide to various sights, including mentioning the citizens' pride in the Cork town hall, not exactly a sky-scraper, but the tallest building in the country, currently.

We also stopped off at the Butter Museum for an excellent lesson in marketing, branding and advertising, then nipped across the road to St Anne's church (see photo) where I sat and minded our luggage, while daughter went up the tower to ring the bells of Shandon.

We caught the tour bus back into town, with just the time to collect some souvenirs from the tourist office before waiting for the Skybus back to the airport. It was 10 minutes late and we were both getting worried, when two buses arrived at once. On the plane, we sat next to a priest Father MS) who had some interesting tales to tell us about some of his experiences, such as unclean hospitals, and characterful people with few close relatives around when they died.

Got home with time to see husband enjoy his three bottles of whiskey (miniatures) - daughter delighted in buying them and showing her passport as evidence of her 18 years to the cashier, who wasn't interested.

Kinsale

We took the bus to Kinsale this morning, There's a cool wind today and daughter is a bit off colour, cold and sleepy. We had a look round, the city in the morning, stopping at the Crawford art gallery where we had scones and a drink and then nipped back to the hostel for daughter to have a quick nap, and we fetched warmer coats.

The road to Kinsale is lined with golden gorse and cordylines - an odd combination. Daughter slept.

We wandered around first, found the Tourist Information to get a map, and then, being as this is the gourmet capital of Ireland, treated ourselves to a light lunch of sea food and tabbouleh in Max's wine bar followed by a rhubarb tiramisu and a succes cake (meringue & caramel). We then strolled round to see sights. We observed the influence of the British history in the post boxes.



Another thing that interested me was the brightly painted houses. There are terraces of them in Kinsale and Cork.

The most interesting place to my mind was Desmond Castle. This has a long history as a customs house, an arsenal for the Spanish and a prison for French prisoners in the 17th century. It might have been rather overcrowded and there was a disaster in 1747 when a fire killed 54 prisoners. It is now a national museum and includes an exhibition not only of the gaol but also of the history of Irish wine links. Being a port, Cork has imported wine from Spain and France for centuries if not millenia.

Cork

We're in the Bru hostel. We arrived in Cork yesterday afternoon to lovely weather - balmy and spring like. The hostel, Bru, is not too bad - worth a few asteroids, if not stars. It's clean and quiet (if you're not in the bar) and we are sharing our room with a couple of young women from New Orleans. (What does 'bru' mean?) It's right in the middle of the city, but from our walk last night, I'd guess that this side of the river is less salubrious than the other, which seems to be the shopping side.

We walked past the Cork Opera House, which was advertising Spanish Harlem that evening and strolled though a square , where we could hear the birds' evening chorus, round a church and onto the main street. We found a couple of alley ways, the Huguenot quarter, where there were a number of cafes and restaurants. We got ourselves some pasta in one.

The air was still warm as we wandered back to the hostel, avoiding the cheerful drunks, “are ye off for the night? one inquired of daughter. We bought a box of chamomile tea, and brewed up in the hostel kitchen, played with my new eeepc a bit, but haven't got the wi-fi up yet, then retired to bed in our two bunk, i.e. four berth room with a couple of women from New Orleans, Julie and Susan.

We visited Blarney Castle. Baloney and Blarney. What's the difference? It seems baloney's where you say something flattering that is obviously untrue, like telling a 50 year old that she looks 18, but blarney is more realistic flattery. And today daughter kissed the Blarney Stone, which is supposed to make the kisser eloquent; she spent the rest of the afternoon telling me I was huggable.

We wandered round the fascinating grounds in spring sunshine, following the 'rock trail' that is supposed to show us the witch's steps and kitchen, ancient stones and formations of circles. Here's a picture of the witch's stone.

In the woodland and pathways, I was delighted to see spring flowers that I haven't seen for decades: ladies smock, marsh marigolds and wild garlic. I nibbled a fresh leaf. Then we caught a mid afternoon bus back to the city in time to return to the English market. We'd visited it in the morning and found the huge variety of butchers, green grocers (with fresh turmeric even), grocers and fishmongers. We bought whiting, mushrooms and rice to prepare for supper in the hostel kitchen, and stopped for tea and cake in the cafe. We found a variety of fascinating small shops in the alleys near Patrick's Street, including a glass designer - and I would really like some of this to lighten our windowless bathroom.



After dumping our shopping in the hostel, we strolled up to University College, round the campus a little, and back to Fin Barr's Cathedral, its gold glinting in the evening sun.
Now our feet are really tired. I wonder how much walking we'll do tomorrow because we're thinking of visiting Kinsale.

18 today

Planning trip to Cork

Daughter and I are planning a few days away next week, in Cork. We're flying out with just the one bag each, so no hanging around for baggage, and we're staying in a cheap hostel. Now we're looking for things to do there. I understand there's a small art gallery and fascinating old gaol and I found a tourist bus trip round the city, which I think we should do on the first day there.

Birthday boy

Son has friends round to celebrate his 20th birthday tomorrow. They've made a fondue. I find that fascinating because there was a decade when it was naff to have a fondue and when I gave someone a set as a present it went down like a load of curdled cold cheese fondue. Yeuch! Yet his father and I always used fondues for fun meals, and had cheese ones when vegetarian friends and relatives came. How nice that son sees fondues as fun too.

Spring time

Yesterday the scent of the clematis armandi was heady and beautiful. Today, it's covered in snow and there's no smell.