Friday the 21st

I should start with yesterday, but I'll do today as the memories are fresher.

It was a rare sunny day and Barb and I gave David and Sue some time away from us and headed into town.  We wanted to punt on the river in the sun.

The river Cam of course, as we are in Cambridge.

The town is filled with young guys talking to all the tourists about an adventure on the river.  The prices are a bit negotiable, so don't be afraid to ask for a discount.

This is a 4 minute trip down a few bridges, a sweeping U turn and back again.  You get to glide past a couple of the colleges, who own the river banks.  The view is ok, though you want some weather to add to the mood of it all.  We were in a punt with a nice English couple, who we chatted with awaiting the boat.  There were some Koreans in the front of the boat and the English couple, Barb, and I and a Chinese couple with us.

The Koreans talked among themselves the entire time and the Chinese guy sat up on his seat blocking both voice of the guide and view.  This was annoying.   But the photographic opportunities were not all that great, so I'm not complaining too much.

You can rent your own punt and learn to do it.  It's a simple stretch of the river and there is no current and the boats are smaller.  If I were to do it again, I would seriously try that.

We went to the "coin" store before we got on the boat.  I've been intrigued with the British Penny coin and wanted to pick a few up.  The coin store is a desk in the back of an upscale bike shop.  The coin guy used to do coins in the entire store, but passed the business on to his son, who was into bikes, not coins, but kept a desk in the back.

"Have you got pennies?"

"I do.  How many do you want?"

"Depends on what they cost," I replied.

"I want 50 pence each."

"Well, that's alright, let's seem them."

He dips into a can and comes up with a bunch.  I ended up with 5, which covers the leaders of England from 1896 to 1967.  Georges, Vicky, Liz and Edward were all represented.  I missed out on George III, who lost the colonies, but those are a couple of pounds and I'm not talking 2 or 3.

So souvenir cost is a modest 2.50 pounds at this point.

After the punting, we found some street food in the market area.  I had a German sausage and managed to burn my mouth.  Barb opted for an Italian's version of stir fried chicken with pesto on a roll.  Ate in the street and watched the crowd go by.  Good fun.

We then went over to King's college.  They have a chapel that's pretty interesting if you are into construction details and there is also the usual stained glass and intricate carvings and details that beg to have their picture taken.

We've been in two chapels when the organist decided he/she wanted to get in some practice.  What fun and luck.  The acoustics and volume was interesting.  I counted 5 reverberations on some of the notes.

I noticed some red "paint' on the wall of the chapel and asked the guide what that was all about.

"Graffiti!"  she exclaimed.

"Who did it?"

"Oliver Cromwell!"

"What a bad chap!"

"And he used to keep his horses in the building!  Harumph!"

We were getting tired and stopped in Fitzbillie's for a coffee.  I noticed that they had ice cream.  "I'll have the stem ginger," I said.

"Brilliant!  Cone or glass."

"Glass is fine....  Wait, you can put two scoops in that glass?"

"Oh, yes."

"Don't be shy, reach deep and come up with generous scoops," I suggested.  She scoops and hands it to me.  "Excuse me, but is this really two scoops?"  "Oh, yes."  Hmm, that's not even one, the way I like to scoop it.

But it tasted real good, but I also had to share with Barb, so I'm still wondering if it was a good purchase.  The coffee shops make it real easy to spend 10 pounds for a couple of coffees and snack.  Pounds are about $1.30 right now.

We wandered around a bit more and made our way back to the bus stop.  We had to wait 30 to 40 minutes for the bus, which are supposed to be every 10 minutes.  The traffic is very queue like and the distances are short.  We wanted to go all of 5 miles and it takes 20 minutes.

But today, the bus timing was perfect and we were on our way back to David's in minutes.

David and Sue has some dinner going, usually not the main meal on the day.  Some carrots from a farmers shop, potatoes, and steak and ale pastie.  Very tasty, these pasties!  And some ice cream for sweets.  I scooped, so there was none of this "two" scoops in a small cup stuff.

Yesterday, David and I went golfing with two of his friends, Robin and Mike.  Mike and I took them on and walked away with 5 pounds 25 pence for out efforts.  Won the oozlum and it could have been a couple more if I'd had my SeeMore putter on hand.

Mike is from Wales and has a wonderful accent.  Not a long hitter, but a devil around the greens.  Then into the club house for some chips and pints.  Wonderful guys, wouldn't let me buy!  But I've promised them Barb's spare room and a Costco hot dog if they ever show up in California.

We went out for a curry dinner afterwords.  This is Indian food for those without a dictionary at hand.  Very much like our, but they use a lot more sugar in the recipes and the naan is a lot thicker and softer.

It went down well with me.  Leftovers are an issue as the refrigerators are tiny here, but it was managed.

Wednesday, David and I played in the bridge game on the north end of town.  This is the game with the better players.  We didn't finish last!  Some adventures were there that didn't always work.  I went for an end play and looked the fool when it didn't work.

I don't think I've talked about our adventure at the snooker club, but maybe.  I'll check and if not, write that up soon.  David's family is coming over tomorrow, so no blogging.

It's late and bed time!