Orientation activities continued to day with lectures on staying safe, on health care options, and on becoming involved in the student union. During the lunch hour, the campus Well-being Centre gave a presentation on services available, including prayer space and classes on meditation. Though we’d planned to go into the centre of town, Lauren wasn’t feeling well and went back to her flat. Padma and I opted to go into Bristol City Centre anyway with the intent of exploring Castle Park.
Castle Park, just across the street from Broadmead, contains the ruins of St Peter and St Mary le Port which were churches before they were destroyed in the blitz. Also destroyed at that time were a few remaining mediaeval buildings, and parts of Bristol castle. There was graffiti and litter all over, which was sad to me considering the history of the place. St Peter is kept up as a memorial to Bristolian citizens killed in the bombing, but St Mary’s tower seems fairly neglected. The graffiti was worst in that corner of the park, and it looked a little sketchy to me.
Padma and I walked through the park and out onto High Street which we crossed to go into St Nicholas Market. It was fairly busy so I didn’t take many pictures, but the buildings are quite old and the architecture is interesting to take in. The Market itself is a collection of small shops, stalls, and tiny restaurants. Padma and I perused a used bookstore where I found a book on legends from around the United Kingdom. Apparently Berkeley Castle is supposed to be haunted by Richard II, and Minchinhampton is home to a number of prehistoric monoliths.
Bristol didn’t have any particularly special stories, except that at one time a whole group of people swear they saw an anchor on a rope drop down from the sky and catch around a tombstone in a church graveyard. The account states that the people all saw the rope being tugged, and then they saw a ghostly man climb down the rope out of the clouds. One of the people tried to grab him, and the ghost man allegedly appeared to drown in the air and disappear. The rope was then cut and the anchor abandoned. The record of the story apparently didn’t give a name for the church, nor does the anchor tip that the people supposedly managed to tack to the church door seem to be hanging around anywhere. Alas.
From St Nicholas, Padma and I walked along Welsh Back and the Floating Harbour, where a number of restaurants and riverboat bars are located. Among them was The Apple, which was recommended as a place for tasty, cheap, strong cider. From there we wandered to Queen Square,which was full of kids just out of school. At the centre of the park was a statue of a guy on a horse. Now where might I have seen those before? Instead of a Confederate soldier, however, this was William III, the guy who chartered the College of William and Mary.
Leaving Queen Square we wandered past a pub or two and over the Redcliffe Bridge, and around the corner was Quakers Burial Ground. We weren’t entirely sure whether anyone had been buried there, but it was a pretty place and surprisingly quiet for its location at a busy intersection. Next to a bench in the park there was a placard explaining that a cherry tree there had been planted in memory of a fellow called John who died saving the lives of others by directing his runaway car off the road.
After this, Padma and I crossed Redcliff Hill to reach our actual destination, which was St Mary Redcliffe.The walk around back was paved with bits of grave markers, I believe, some of them well over two hundred years old. I don’t think there was anyone underneath them, as a few had been cut in half or catty-cornered to make way for paths. One marker, Thomas Chatterton’s, was set in a little garden next to a rosebush. We did not enter the church, but I intend to go to evensong one night while I’m here.
Though we’d planned to stop and Sainsbury’s on our way back through town, Padma and I found ourselves much more tired than expected after walking back up Victoria Street and back around to Castle Park. We caught the U3 directly back to campus and have gone our separate ways for the night. I am getting ready to put some pasta on the stove, and another suitemate, Phillip, has just arrived. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do tomorrow, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Thursday, September 17
Wednesday, September 16
Stop and Smell the Roses
Padma arrived on Monday afternoon, and on Tuesday he and I had breakfast before popping down to the City Centre for some shopping. While there, we stopped at my favourite of shops, Starbucks Coffee Co. Turns out they’ll take American partner numbers, but only with an actual card – do you feel like sending mine, mum? We wandered around Cabot Circus and over into the Broadmead area where we saw someone playing on one of the live art pianos, which are currently featured in Bristol.
Once we were through shopping, Padma and I caught the U1 going out to the Ashton Bower campus of UWE where fine arts studies take place. This is where I’d seen the grounds of Ashton Court Estate, and that is where we headed. It’s only a very short walk from the AB Campus car park, though the walk is entirely uphill. Ashton Court Estate is comprised of a huge mansion and its grounds, bought from private owners by the Bristol City Council in the 1970s. Coming in we saw what we learned later were red deer standing around in a field on a hill. The hill was rippled over with trenches that are what remains of the Saxons who lived there and ploughed the land back in the day.
Once we were through shopping, Padma and I caught the U1 going out to the Ashton Bower campus of UWE where fine arts studies take place. This is where I’d seen the grounds of Ashton Court Estate, and that is where we headed. It’s only a very short walk from the AB Campus car park, though the walk is entirely uphill. Ashton Court Estate is comprised of a huge mansion and its grounds, bought from private owners by the Bristol City Council in the 1970s. Coming in we saw what we learned later were red deer standing around in a field on a hill. The hill was rippled over with trenches that are what remains of the Saxons who lived there and ploughed the land back in the day.
I got more excited than I should have about the view from the car park at the visitor’s centre, especially considering what we went on to see. The visitor’s centre itself had only opened the week before we arrived there, and the facilities there (cafe, etc) are in the process of getting started. They have the first floor renovated and open for conferences and weddings, but the rest of the house is closed until they can get enough money to furnish it for public viewing. The house has quite a history and ownership of the land is mentioned in the Doomsday Survey, which I thought was pretty cool. The grounds are home to a deer park including red and spotted deer, as we’d seen from the road.
When we’d had our fill of history, Padma and I took off down a path and through a garden, but where we were wasn’t on the map, so we ended up kind of backwards. We were trying to get to something labelled as the “Domesday Oak,” which sounded kind of awesome. A friendly jogger with a stroller gave us some idea of where we were, but it turned out that once she looked at the map, she didn’t know where we were, either! Anywho, we got straightened out and headed bravely off in the right direction... which seemed to lead up a tiny, rocky, extra steep path for mountain bikes. We climbed it anyway, and I got photos of Bristol from several different elevations, and snapped a few photos of plant life for later identification.
At the top of this path, we did indeed find an oak tree, but it had no sign or indication that it was the Domesday Oak. A biker passing by circled back to see if we needed help, and said that it looked to him like we were in the right place. I have since learned from the estate’s website the Domesday Oak is one we passed a few metres down the road, one that I fortunately decided to photograph. We climbed up just a little ways further and sat on a bench looking out at the city – definitely my favourite view so far. We then, thankfully, started our journey downhill. The way back down included the statue of a guy’s head which I assume represented the head of a Mr. Smythe.
At the top of this path, we did indeed find an oak tree, but it had no sign or indication that it was the Domesday Oak. A biker passing by circled back to see if we needed help, and said that it looked to him like we were in the right place. I have since learned from the estate’s website the Domesday Oak is one we passed a few metres down the road, one that I fortunately decided to photograph. We climbed up just a little ways further and sat on a bench looking out at the city – definitely my favourite view so far. We then, thankfully, started our journey downhill. The way back down included the statue of a guy’s head which I assume represented the head of a Mr. Smythe.
A little ways on from that we found a really pretty little clearing and a darker bike trail into the woods which we decided to follow. This led us back around to almost exactly where we’d started up the hill, and afforded some really beautiful shots of the mansion house. The grounds there are absolutely gorgeous, covered in trees and huge meadows of this really soft, springy grass. It’s long enough and shiny enough that when the wind blows you can watch the waves blow across. Even though I have so much more to explore, I really can’t wait to get back to this park!
Back towards the mansion house we followed a path down through a pretty landscaped garden and between these two huge redwood trees which you can see in a few of my pictures. We spent quite a lot of time in the estate’s rose garden, most of which was in full bloom. Each bush smelled slightly different, and we had a great time comparing them, especially the ones that smelled like peaches. A few varieties have sort of a lemony scent to them, which I particularly enjoyed.
There are several festivals held at Ashton Court Estate throughout the year, including a hot air balloon festival and the kite and flyer festival which was held just last weekend. On our way back toward the park entrance, I snapped a photo of what must be Charlie Brown’s Kite-Eating Tree.
Back towards the mansion house we followed a path down through a pretty landscaped garden and between these two huge redwood trees which you can see in a few of my pictures. We spent quite a lot of time in the estate’s rose garden, most of which was in full bloom. Each bush smelled slightly different, and we had a great time comparing them, especially the ones that smelled like peaches. A few varieties have sort of a lemony scent to them, which I particularly enjoyed.
There are several festivals held at Ashton Court Estate throughout the year, including a hot air balloon festival and the kite and flyer festival which was held just last weekend. On our way back toward the park entrance, I snapped a photo of what must be Charlie Brown’s Kite-Eating Tree.
There were lots of people with their dogs all over the park the whole day, both on and off their leads. One woman had a really pretty little whippet, and a basset hound tried really hard to get me to play with her. We met a four-month-old Alsatian puppy called Skye just before we left, and she was just desperate to meet us. Also on the grounds we saw a huge German Shepherd with his people, and loads of terriers. One woman was doing retrieval games with her border collie, which appeared to be having a great time.
In the history of the estate we’d read that Esme Smythe, a former lady of the house, liked to keep Pomeranian dogs. She had usually kept several at a time and had had them buried on the grounds. We passed their little graveyard patch on our way up to the road and paused a few moments to read their headstones. One of them, I was amused to find, had been called Tam.
At the very last second I spotted a strange box set a few yards away from the car park, carved all over with Saxon-esque relief. It turned out to be a map explaining the view of Bristol from that point, including an explanation of the Saxon ploughing strips. We made it back down the bus just as it arrived for its six-minute sit at the campus, and then we were on our way back to Frenchay. It’s really exhilarating to be able to just see something and decide to go check it out. I never treated anything in Richmond that way because it always seemed so familiar. Here, though, everything is new and every excursion an adventure. I am having so much fun!
I finally had an extended conversation with my suitemate, Erik, who is the only other fellow in my flat just now. He is a German citizen who has been living in Norway the last six years, and he’s starting his first year at university studying Pharmaceutical Science. He, Padma and I met Lauren, a fellow VCU student, for Orientation activities this morning. Our activities were not particularly exciting, but I collected a few useful websites for later perusal. Lauren and I marched down to Sainsbury’s for her first shopping experience, and we’ll all be meeting again tomorrow morning for day two of the fun. I hope tomorrow won’t be too long, as I’m really hoping to get to explore North Park down in the Centre this week. If not tomorrow, though, there’ll be Friday... and the day after that... and the day after that...
Monday, September 14
Adventures in Public Transportation
I feel so accomplished! I’ve been to the bank and I’ve been to the City Centre and back. Actually I’ve been beyond the City Centre, but I’ll get to that.
So. NatWest bank has a branch on campus, not just a cash machine, as I was delighted to discover. I have put in for a letter confirming my UK address, which I will be able to pick up Wednesday and submit with my passport to open an account. With that squared away, I headed for the campus bus stops which are conveniently located just outside the student hub (imagine the VCU student commons with all of the administrative offices under one roof).
The university has a deal with the transportation system to supply U-line buses that run to and from UWE. They are hard to miss as they are bright red, and it is very, very comforting to know that wherever I am, all I have to do is find a stop labelled with the U-line and I will be able to get home. The university supplied me with a pre-paid card good through the end of July next year, which means FREE BUS RIDES for me!
Though I had some general idea of where I was headed, I was really grateful that there was another girl on the bus who hit the “stop” button at the stop I needed. The buses here don’t tell you inside where the next stops are, so it helps to know a couple of ones before yours so that you can indicate in time that you need to get off. (Here is the map.) I rode the U1 today (the red line) to Cabot Circus where first thing I procured a lovely purple mobile phone. It should be working, but I am still figuring out how to use it. If you’d like the number, please message me via facebook or by email.
Cabot Circus has three floors and looks quite similar to the new open-air malls in Richmond. The building is sheltered by a huge glass dome kind of thing, and while I was there, several men where clambering around on top of it washing the panes. I wandered around for a bit and had a coffee at Costa, which is a lot like Starbucks. Next time I will go to an actual Starbucks, as there’s one of those hidden away on the third level. After further wandering, including inspection of a toy shop, I stopped at a restaurant called Hey Potato!, a potato bar that offers various styles of potato with various toppings. I chose Italian chicken, which tastes less Italian and more American tex-mex.
Take-away in hand, I wandered around until I discovered the place that I’d come in, and I retraced my steps down Bond Street (I think?) back to the bus stop where I’d arrived. The wait was about ten minutes for the next bus, and in the meantime I people-watched. Folks don’t seem to mind being watched, and if they catch you looking, don’t seem to expect you to immediately avert your eyes, which I find kind of nice. People aren’t generally inclined to strike up unnecessary conversation, but if they do speak, it is direct and friendly. Unless it’s a bus driver swearing at an idiotic pedestrian/bike/car. This happened a couple of times.
Speaking of pedestrians/bikes/cars – while it is almost completely silent on campus, especially after sundown, and now because there are no students, the Centre is a proper city. There are clearly marked bike lanes on the most major roads, but on others they ride as close to the side as they can. It seems that you have to absolutely fearless in order to do this, because cars and buses are inclined to hit their brakes at absolutely the last second, and they’ll give you three inches of clearance if you’re lucky. Where it’s permitted, cars park mostly on the sidewalk. Where it isn’t permitted there are more often double yellow lines or zigzag white ones rather than signs. The roundabouts appear very easy to navigate, so long as you have some idea where you’re going.
If it’s any more complicated than two lanes, they’re marked with directions and arrows to keep you on track, and the signage is very clear.
The bus I chose was again the U1, and the end of the route ran down to Temple Meade station which is gorgeous, past St. Nicholas’ Market which is kind of an alley bazaar, and all the way out to Ashton Court and the fine arts campus of UWE. Ashton Court is unbelievably beautiful, and mum especially would love it because all of the houses resemble the little stone one right next to the Bon Air library. I intend to go back out there for a walk just as soon as I can manage (tomorrow!), and I promise that I will take pictures. Today I was just too busy looking around to manage anything else.
Because I got back on the away-going bus, we turned around at Ashton Court and went back through the city the way we’d come. It would have been more direct, apparently, to get on the same line across the street from where I decided to go, but I’m glad that I didn’t because I got to see loads more. There are shops for just about everything you can imagine (including a bead shop, mum!) and another yarn store that I’ll have to check out. There are lots of Indian and Chinese takeaway shops, and at least one Grecian kebab place on the U1 line. Across the river I saw an amusing sign for a location under construction – it’s to be called “Wapping Wharf,” which made me laugh.
Down towards Old Market I saw a number of little pubs, including one called Kingshead which looks the way you’d expect a pub to look. The building is squashed and narrow, and the door is low and the sign is dark green with thin gold lettering and painted at the very top of the building is a little sign that says c.1660. How cool is that? There are other, newer pubs that all advertise “home-cooked food” which must be a local selling-point. On Gloucester Street one can find Robin Hood’s Retreat, The Golden Lion, and The Hobgoblin.
There’s loads more I know I wanted to mention but I can’t think of it all right now. It will come to me, I’m sure. Right now I’m going to learn a little more about my phone and hopefully give uni-box a try – no response yet to my enquiry form, so perhaps a call will speed things along.
So. NatWest bank has a branch on campus, not just a cash machine, as I was delighted to discover. I have put in for a letter confirming my UK address, which I will be able to pick up Wednesday and submit with my passport to open an account. With that squared away, I headed for the campus bus stops which are conveniently located just outside the student hub (imagine the VCU student commons with all of the administrative offices under one roof).
The university has a deal with the transportation system to supply U-line buses that run to and from UWE. They are hard to miss as they are bright red, and it is very, very comforting to know that wherever I am, all I have to do is find a stop labelled with the U-line and I will be able to get home. The university supplied me with a pre-paid card good through the end of July next year, which means FREE BUS RIDES for me!
Though I had some general idea of where I was headed, I was really grateful that there was another girl on the bus who hit the “stop” button at the stop I needed. The buses here don’t tell you inside where the next stops are, so it helps to know a couple of ones before yours so that you can indicate in time that you need to get off. (Here is the map.) I rode the U1 today (the red line) to Cabot Circus where first thing I procured a lovely purple mobile phone. It should be working, but I am still figuring out how to use it. If you’d like the number, please message me via facebook or by email.
Cabot Circus has three floors and looks quite similar to the new open-air malls in Richmond. The building is sheltered by a huge glass dome kind of thing, and while I was there, several men where clambering around on top of it washing the panes. I wandered around for a bit and had a coffee at Costa, which is a lot like Starbucks. Next time I will go to an actual Starbucks, as there’s one of those hidden away on the third level. After further wandering, including inspection of a toy shop, I stopped at a restaurant called Hey Potato!, a potato bar that offers various styles of potato with various toppings. I chose Italian chicken, which tastes less Italian and more American tex-mex.
Take-away in hand, I wandered around until I discovered the place that I’d come in, and I retraced my steps down Bond Street (I think?) back to the bus stop where I’d arrived. The wait was about ten minutes for the next bus, and in the meantime I people-watched. Folks don’t seem to mind being watched, and if they catch you looking, don’t seem to expect you to immediately avert your eyes, which I find kind of nice. People aren’t generally inclined to strike up unnecessary conversation, but if they do speak, it is direct and friendly. Unless it’s a bus driver swearing at an idiotic pedestrian/bike/car. This happened a couple of times.
Speaking of pedestrians/bikes/cars – while it is almost completely silent on campus, especially after sundown, and now because there are no students, the Centre is a proper city. There are clearly marked bike lanes on the most major roads, but on others they ride as close to the side as they can. It seems that you have to absolutely fearless in order to do this, because cars and buses are inclined to hit their brakes at absolutely the last second, and they’ll give you three inches of clearance if you’re lucky. Where it’s permitted, cars park mostly on the sidewalk. Where it isn’t permitted there are more often double yellow lines or zigzag white ones rather than signs. The roundabouts appear very easy to navigate, so long as you have some idea where you’re going.
If it’s any more complicated than two lanes, they’re marked with directions and arrows to keep you on track, and the signage is very clear.
The bus I chose was again the U1, and the end of the route ran down to Temple Meade station which is gorgeous, past St. Nicholas’ Market which is kind of an alley bazaar, and all the way out to Ashton Court and the fine arts campus of UWE. Ashton Court is unbelievably beautiful, and mum especially would love it because all of the houses resemble the little stone one right next to the Bon Air library. I intend to go back out there for a walk just as soon as I can manage (tomorrow!), and I promise that I will take pictures. Today I was just too busy looking around to manage anything else.
Because I got back on the away-going bus, we turned around at Ashton Court and went back through the city the way we’d come. It would have been more direct, apparently, to get on the same line across the street from where I decided to go, but I’m glad that I didn’t because I got to see loads more. There are shops for just about everything you can imagine (including a bead shop, mum!) and another yarn store that I’ll have to check out. There are lots of Indian and Chinese takeaway shops, and at least one Grecian kebab place on the U1 line. Across the river I saw an amusing sign for a location under construction – it’s to be called “Wapping Wharf,” which made me laugh.
Down towards Old Market I saw a number of little pubs, including one called Kingshead which looks the way you’d expect a pub to look. The building is squashed and narrow, and the door is low and the sign is dark green with thin gold lettering and painted at the very top of the building is a little sign that says c.1660. How cool is that? There are other, newer pubs that all advertise “home-cooked food” which must be a local selling-point. On Gloucester Street one can find Robin Hood’s Retreat, The Golden Lion, and The Hobgoblin.
There’s loads more I know I wanted to mention but I can’t think of it all right now. It will come to me, I’m sure. Right now I’m going to learn a little more about my phone and hopefully give uni-box a try – no response yet to my enquiry form, so perhaps a call will speed things along.
Sunday, September 13
First Time Shopping
After writing yesterday, I did in fact make the trek to the grocery. Sainsbury’s (http://www.sainsburys.co.uk, if you’d like to see) is the only grocery within walking distance from campus, though the return trip is more uphill than expected. It was fairly busy, which I’m told is not unusual for a Saturday, and there are signs everywhere for recycling and reusable bags and so on. The store is not laid out at all like I’d expect, but I imagine I’ll get used to it soon. It does begin with the produce, though, so that’s where I began.
Sainsbury’s offers lots of different fruit and veg, some refrigerated and some in boxes tiered on display shelves. You can get it pre-bagged or you can bag it yourself, just like here, and there are usually one or two organic options for each item. Sainsbury’s offers a generic store-brand of just about everything, so for instance you can get gala, pink lady, or Sainsbury’s Basic apples. They were offering a £1 special on Sainsbury’s Basic blueberries, so I got some of those, and also some SB grapes, which were cheap. All of the fruit was labelled with its country of origin: my grapes are Greek, by blueberries Polish.
Meat is available mostly pre-packaged, and the small meat counter was quite crowded with people so I skipped it. There was a whole refrigerator aisle devoted to pies, so I skipped that as well and will go back another time to investigate. Sliced sandwich meat is very thoroughly labelled, including not only that whatever inside is processed, but exactly how and with what. The chicken I got, for instance, is held together with potato starch. Good to know.
Milk is available both refrigerated and not, and most of the refrigerated is organic. I chose refrigerated this time, but intend to experiment with the shelf-stable kind another time. Juice is available in almost every combination you can think of. No POG, but I did find juices that contained Passionfruit... instead I chose Orange, Mango, Guava, which is close. I hit the cereal aisle next which was between canned veg and baby items. There is so much shredded wheat available, and also lots of Special K. I found the Sainsbury’s Basic version of multigrain Cheerios (called Hooplas here) and picked up a box.
The bread was all the way at the back, but fortunately, wholemeal baps (Brit for whole grain rolls) were available for cheap. Instead of a condiment aisle, things are scattered around. Mustard was on an aisle labelled “Spreads” which included things like prawn spread, which didn’t particularly appeal. Then there were generic meat spreads, which I did not investigate, because I finally spotted the yellow mustard. Coleman’s Original English was much, much less expensive than French’s, so I chose it. I half regret this now because I just made a sandwich with it. Think the smooth version of straight up mustard seed, which is rather a lot like straight horseradish. Absolutely not what I was expecting and next time I will be using far less of it. On the bright side, my sinuses are clear.
Sainsbury’s, like Wal-Mart, has a home furnishing section and a small clothing section in with the other home product sorts of things. They were crowded, so I skipped browsing and headed for checkout. There were signs for the store reusable bags, available for 9p with a free trade-in policy. The ones I got have a squirrel that reads, “I’m nuts about recycling!” which as an advertisement I decided was preferable to the elephant, which read, “I’m sturdy”. You bag your own groceries while the clerk rings up your order and tells you what you owe. My stuff altogether was £10 and change.
Walking home I noticed the pedestrian signal signs, which will actually stop traffic for you to cross. Being from Richmond, I am used to waiting for traffic to clear and heading out into the road. I’ll have to observe a bit before deciding whether or not this approach is acceptable.
I checked in with reception last night to find out if my bedding or kitchen things had arrived as they were supposed to. I found that the very basic packs had arrived, but as my order was not among them, the fellow at the desk placed a call. Apparently, uni-box, the company from which I ordered my stuff, did these things separately from the ones the school got in. If I decide to settle for the one the school has, I either trade them what i get if/when my order comes in, or I purchase it from the school. I opted for writing a forceful enquiry to the company, wanting to know what was going in with the order that I placed several week s ago for delivery on Friday. Hopefully they’ll do something about that on Monday, and until then I’m sleeping in my quilt and having my cereal and milk separately.
Over the course of the morning I started and re-started my new knitting project half a dozen times. I’ve made it to row twelve of the sixteen-row pattern, but those twelve rows took an hour and forty-five minutes. Ridiculous. I didn’t end up exploring at all today, but I will definitely be going out tomorrow. The temperature is dropping into the 50s and I’m going to nip outside for a few minutes before bed.
Sainsbury’s offers lots of different fruit and veg, some refrigerated and some in boxes tiered on display shelves. You can get it pre-bagged or you can bag it yourself, just like here, and there are usually one or two organic options for each item. Sainsbury’s offers a generic store-brand of just about everything, so for instance you can get gala, pink lady, or Sainsbury’s Basic apples. They were offering a £1 special on Sainsbury’s Basic blueberries, so I got some of those, and also some SB grapes, which were cheap. All of the fruit was labelled with its country of origin: my grapes are Greek, by blueberries Polish.
Meat is available mostly pre-packaged, and the small meat counter was quite crowded with people so I skipped it. There was a whole refrigerator aisle devoted to pies, so I skipped that as well and will go back another time to investigate. Sliced sandwich meat is very thoroughly labelled, including not only that whatever inside is processed, but exactly how and with what. The chicken I got, for instance, is held together with potato starch. Good to know.
Milk is available both refrigerated and not, and most of the refrigerated is organic. I chose refrigerated this time, but intend to experiment with the shelf-stable kind another time. Juice is available in almost every combination you can think of. No POG, but I did find juices that contained Passionfruit... instead I chose Orange, Mango, Guava, which is close. I hit the cereal aisle next which was between canned veg and baby items. There is so much shredded wheat available, and also lots of Special K. I found the Sainsbury’s Basic version of multigrain Cheerios (called Hooplas here) and picked up a box.
The bread was all the way at the back, but fortunately, wholemeal baps (Brit for whole grain rolls) were available for cheap. Instead of a condiment aisle, things are scattered around. Mustard was on an aisle labelled “Spreads” which included things like prawn spread, which didn’t particularly appeal. Then there were generic meat spreads, which I did not investigate, because I finally spotted the yellow mustard. Coleman’s Original English was much, much less expensive than French’s, so I chose it. I half regret this now because I just made a sandwich with it. Think the smooth version of straight up mustard seed, which is rather a lot like straight horseradish. Absolutely not what I was expecting and next time I will be using far less of it. On the bright side, my sinuses are clear.
Sainsbury’s, like Wal-Mart, has a home furnishing section and a small clothing section in with the other home product sorts of things. They were crowded, so I skipped browsing and headed for checkout. There were signs for the store reusable bags, available for 9p with a free trade-in policy. The ones I got have a squirrel that reads, “I’m nuts about recycling!” which as an advertisement I decided was preferable to the elephant, which read, “I’m sturdy”. You bag your own groceries while the clerk rings up your order and tells you what you owe. My stuff altogether was £10 and change.
Walking home I noticed the pedestrian signal signs, which will actually stop traffic for you to cross. Being from Richmond, I am used to waiting for traffic to clear and heading out into the road. I’ll have to observe a bit before deciding whether or not this approach is acceptable.
I checked in with reception last night to find out if my bedding or kitchen things had arrived as they were supposed to. I found that the very basic packs had arrived, but as my order was not among them, the fellow at the desk placed a call. Apparently, uni-box, the company from which I ordered my stuff, did these things separately from the ones the school got in. If I decide to settle for the one the school has, I either trade them what i get if/when my order comes in, or I purchase it from the school. I opted for writing a forceful enquiry to the company, wanting to know what was going in with the order that I placed several week s ago for delivery on Friday. Hopefully they’ll do something about that on Monday, and until then I’m sleeping in my quilt and having my cereal and milk separately.
Over the course of the morning I started and re-started my new knitting project half a dozen times. I’ve made it to row twelve of the sixteen-row pattern, but those twelve rows took an hour and forty-five minutes. Ridiculous. I didn’t end up exploring at all today, but I will definitely be going out tomorrow. The temperature is dropping into the 50s and I’m going to nip outside for a few minutes before bed.
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