Day in Bath

On Saturday, Jeff and I drove down to Bath, not so much to see the sites of the city, but to meet up with people: Jeff's colleague and his wife, Ally, and Ally's friends from Belfast, Ken and Lisa.

We arrived at Gareth's house (Jeff's colleague) at about 11:00 and had coffee with him. Gareth and Jeff have lunch together every day at work, so it's about time I met him. I even send a slice of cake with Jeff for him every time I bake something. His wife, Anna, was out riding her horse, so we didn't get to meet her until the late afternoon.

Gareth drove us into the center of Bath to meet up with Ally and her friends. The five of us went to a small restaurant/bar that Gareth recommended called "1453" on Monmouth Street. All of us were very happy with our meal. Afterward we just walked around the city, did a bit of browsing in shops and had the obligatory coffee later in the afternoon.

Lisa, Ally and Baby Bump, me and Jeff in front of the Bath Abbey

Us

Us again

Jeff loving his kiss!

Gareth kindly picked us up again and we went back to his house. Anna was there this time, so we quickly met her before getting ready to go out to dinner with them. We went to the restaurant of their choice, called "One Beaufort" (website), which is owned by the same French owner of 1453. Gareth and Anna were fantastic to get to know, as they are also interested in fine foods and historic homes (like the National Trust). Gareth said something along the lines of, "If tonight goes well, you two can spend the night next time you come down and we can show you around Bath more". I replied, "You're making it sound like we're dating the two of you!" In fact, we did have a wonderful evening with them and hope to make plans with them again soon.

One little surprise I have to mention: David Hepler came to stay with us for exactly 6 hours on Sunday. He called in the afternoon, explained that where had planned to stay fell through, so he asked if he could stay with us. He arrived Sunday evening at about 10:00. We sat up talking until midnight, and woke up to see him off at 4:00am. Sweet and short.

Newent Onion Fayre

It has been a few weekends since we went to the Newent Onion Fayre with Ally, but it's better to post it now than not at all. It has definitely turned to autumn around here; there's a nip in the air and the daylight is getting shorter and shorter.

The weekend after the wedding in Scotland, our friends Paul and Ally Ng came up from Bristol with a couple of friends. Paul and the friends kindly dropped Ally off at our house so we could spend the day together while they went on to a football (soccer) game just north of here. So Jeff, Ally and I went up to the village of Newent, about 20 minutes northwest of here, to walk around the Onion Fayre. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting, though. I thought it there would be tons of vendors selling everything onion, like the Pumpkin Show in Ohio, where there's things like pumpkin chili, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin fritters... you get the idea. We didn't even see onion rings for sale! Perhaps we just missed them, but they definitely weren't obvious. It was VERY crowded too...

However we did get to see the traditional fair bits, like the onion eating contest, the hall with award-winning onions, had a pork and stuffing sandwich for lunch and went home with a bag of... onions?... no... ears of corn! Hey, wouldn't imagine passing up 25p ears of corn, when usually you can buy them for £1.

It was very nice, though, spending time with Ally and getting to see her tiny baby bump. Just talked to her today and said that her bump is getting even more obvious! She's 19 weeks now. Very exciting!

Ally, Babybump (on Ally!) and me (I almost didn't include this picture because of how awful I look, but this is the only picture we took together.)

The onion eating contest hosted by Countryfile's Adam Henson

Homemade Onion Relish

Pork-filled sandwiches with stuffing and apple sauce - yum-o!