Bartimaeus

Last night we went into Whitchurch. We arrived when most shops were shut but I was getting peckish so I managed to persuade Shane into an early tea (that wasn’t hard) and was even persuaded into having tapas when the main menu was not available, only tapas on Thursdays. Trying a bunch of flavours and styles suits me anyway, with a coastal bias, calamari were an agreed first choice and prawns featured twice in the other choices. Bread with oil and balsamic vinegar dip was delivered extra. Local beers, tapas, extras served with your beer and sunshine felt very like a Spanish holiday.

I wasn’t completely off duty though. I got a message from Richard pointing out an editorial mistake in a blog. He is my first responder if anything is awry. I promised to fix it after the tapas. So he replied in Spanish entreating us to enjoy our food. I failed to reply in a sentence and a simple Gracias had to suffice.

On the way back we passed the church. One might have expected a white washed church by the name of the town, which would have looked quite Spanish too, but it was made of sandstone in a mixture of pinks and yellow, and rather grand it was too. A Roman wall close by used an all red local sandstone.

I later checked up and found that this had been built hastily in the 1700s in a mere two years. I also discovered that an earlier church had been built, after the Norman conquest in white stone and this is when the place name changed from Westune (west farmstead) to Album Monastarium (white church). 

When we returned to the boat it was not quite sunset and Shane decided it would be better if we moored round the corner, where there would be better sun on the panels. Round the corner also meant through a lift bridge so I went to wind it. The hydraulic lifts can be a long tiring wind. I got it to the maximum but it still didn’t look quite high enough but he got through. Winding it down was every bit as tiring and I could see a runner approaching down the towpath who was going to want across it. I got it level when he was a couple of steps away. As we glanced at each other we simultaneously said “perfect timing!” He ran over without breaking stride.

We moored in the first space and I could get in and correct my errors. But first thing in the morning he noticed that he hadn’t actually chosen a full light spot and was still in the shade of a tree so we moved a very short distance again, but this time no turning and bridge winding was required..

We had a plan to go in to Whitchurch again. We needed some food shopping done and there were bakeries and we had seen a sign for a Friday market  so we had arrived at the perfect day. We found the vegetable, plants and fish stalls. Shane bought bread and a fruit loaf and I found a craft shop. I couldn’t think of what item I needed, but got some bamboo pins for holding knitwear straight while sewing a seam, without damaging the yarn. There were quite a few independent shops here. I hope they manage to thrive. The woman in the craft shop seemed to be struggling and I know these shops are not easy to find. She did repairs and adjustments to clothes too.

I had set off without breakfast so unusually was keener for a cafe visit than Shane and I had seen one I fancied. Shane always wants coffee and I often want something different, not just from him. When having coffee with Geoffrey and Christine, Geoffrey seemed entranced by the turmeric latte I ordered. This place also had turmeric latte available but when I saw beetroot and ginger latte, I had to have it to find out what that was like. It looked like the tables were full though apart from one very large one. Then a lady came over and told us they were about to leave so a small table would soon be free. That was a much cosier spot. The short wait for the table gave us time to peruse the pastries. Shane chose something called a Jaffa cake but with a lot more chocolate and cake and actual pieces of orange. I was still deciding when the man departing from the small table said that the almond croissant had more almond than any he’d ever had, so that made my mind up. He wasn’t kidding. I had to take a picture of my latte to send to Christine and Geoffrey.

We managed to get some vegetables before they packed up the stall and at the last minute added a bunch of beetroot  in, though I don’t plan to make latte with it. They had both cooked and raw beets available. I got a bunch of raw ones, as Shane didn’t go for munching a ready boiled one as a snack. 

I wasn’t tempted to go into the cake shop, but there was a lovely array of meringues in pink and white. I liked the shop front though.

I saw a shop called Refill Your Boots and realised this was an opportunity to refill some jars. We checked their stock and got some herbs and spices in paper bags then said we would go to get containers for other things. Also Shane had a bag full of vegetables already.

When we got back I was a bit too hot  and I realised that I really should have suncream on or I’ll be too pink myself. That was running low too so that was another thing on the shopping list. 

We collected jars, I left my fleece behind and headed back into town and planned to return to the same cafe for late lunch but it was already closed. However we had found another with an outside table in the sun. I ordered a salad and she brought the plates and bottle of dressing to the table. It was a different flavour and colour from most dressings. i splashed it on liberally, turning the plate a bit pink. Shane suggested since they stocked it in the deli shop, we should get a bottle. Beetroot was the surprise theme for the day. 

We had another surprise as the lone boater we had helped through the locks and his friend came round the corner and spotted us. It was nice to see them in good spirits. They were heading for the next pub. 

We headed for our next shop and got the jars filled. We had a great haul of refills for kitchen and bathroom and the woman was thanking us for coming back – maybe people often say they will and don’t. They even had three different sunscreens, so I was spoilt for choice. 

Another man was in the shop and seemed very excited to be there. He said he hadn’t seen a shop like this where he was from – Birmingham. The shop owner was able to tell him the name of a similar Birmingham shop. His great delight was that all the products had clearly written in the front whether they were gluten free. This was a big improvement on searching the small print on the back. He was delighted.

Shane has had a coding breakthrough today. He has had some issues over the last few days on a new version of the Where is Bartimaeus page but was very happy to get it sorted out today…too excited  to say how delicious the curry with the new spices was, but he looked like he enjoyed it. To cap off a very productive day, he spotted the boat that had moored up in the spot we had vacated this morning had a flickering flame light show, as it got dark.