Bartimaeus

To ring the changes from Nottingham castle, Shane had found a park to show me. We set off towards town. I am used to seeing herons but was surprised by a canalside statue that was reminiscent of the metal chickens in The Clangers on their planet far far away. It was made from pieces of metal pulled from the canal, and reclaimed Raleigh parts not necessarily from the canal. It was as tall as me or taller.

On the way we stopped for lunch. I don’t choose a wrap often, but when the kofta or falafel are in freshly made Arabic bread, it is a different  thing entirely. At The Palm Cafe. I was feeling quite in a holiday mood. It was warm enough to sit outside and I was drinking a mango juice and having an authentic exotic lunch. I received a message from Nye. The ballot papers had arrived in Edinburgh. Nye had first class stamps so we thought we might get them the next day. Excellent timing!

We carried on to the park. Shane had read about a Chinese bell tower and was intrigued to find out what it was. I  noticed a monument with colourful roof tiles which reminded me of Dijon. When we got closer Shane recognised Russian writing on the stonework and we could see cannons. Shane had read about a Chinese bell tower and was surprised to find, in stead, something Russian, which had not been mentioned in the park map. As we got round the other side some writing was in English and the notice explained that it was a war memorial which included a replica Chinese bell. Troops had taken the bell as a souvenir but the original bell has been returned now. So far it had been quite an exotic day

The park was not huge but it was attractive and a change of scene from shops and galleries. Not all the information boards were as helpful as the one at the bell tower though and we have no idea what this chap is about or where he’s from. And what is the significance of the number?

We were soon back at the entrance and it felt time for a drink. Shane had his usual cappuccino and I had chai. Then we got ice-cream cones and walked through the park to exit another way.

The boats around us changed and I noticed a large boat had arrived. I couldn’t see the name but was amused with the fairy/flower/fox theme. I couldn’t guess the name from that. Shane had seen the name…no I would never have guessed, Dilly Ding Dilly Dong.

The next day we headed back to the Post Office. We found we had to divert due to police incident tape sealing off a large area in the centre of town. It didn’t look like a dangerous area but I found out later there had been a fight outside a night club and two people had been admitted to hospital after being stabbed. Not the Nottingham we knew!

However we went round and found our postal votes were there. Post Restante works excellently and all over the world. On the way back we saw something that reminded us of the Bridge of Sighs, though a much simpler version than the ones we have seen in Cambridge, Oxford and Venice. Having got our votes we could now leave and start travelling again.