Never Go Back
They say you can never go back, well we did to visit old friends after we moved three years ago. I used to joke back in 2002, when I did my Kenya bike ride, that Wiltshire roads were twinned with Kenya; it seems that’s still the case. June booked for us to stay at the Travel Lodge in Melksham. Basically clean and quiet but in a dead spot for mobile phones. The first room stank of damp and was identified as a soaking carpet outside the bathroom door – we changed room. The carpets have been cleaned so much, the colour changes in patches and I dread to think what was splashed on the bedroom wall next to my bed. We had a breakfast box for an additional fee which pushed the room rate over £100 a night.
We visited our old friends Cornelia and later drove to Savernake Hospital to see Vaughn who is using it as his country residence, giving the RUH Bath Hospital a break to restock. It was great to see them face to face even though June and Cornelia speak every Saturday. We did our best to swap insults and cheer him up.
The following day, we had a lovely lunch and good old catch-up with our old neighbours, Val and Keith. We had a look from their back bedroom window and were appalled at the state of our old garden. The two ponds, greenhouse, pergola, decking and other stuff had been cleared away, the gravel had been replaced with turf, the glass in the summer house removed and the door hanging off – health and safety gone nuts. Numerous children’s play structures (probably super child friendly) had been erected at the bottom of the garden, which overlooked our neighbours the other side. Oops, I think I forgot to mention to them that our old dog was buried just next to their play house. It seems the new occupants have spoken twice in three years and are antisocial to the extreme – weird for a university lecturer! Lots of houses have been added, expanded and renovated in the village since leaving and the overall feel of the place was a little weird and the road seemed so much narrower than I remember.
The following day we visited Richard and Daryl for another face to face catchup as the last time we saw them we were separated by the statutory 2m. Richard is an ex Intel engineer and we met when we attended a course on starting your own business many decades ago. We have remained friends throughout our various business and personal ventures. Richard has taken up building LEGO models – the ones rated 18+ and having many thousand pieces. We were very impressed with his Land Rover Discovery and Helicopter models – the assembly handbooks are over a half inch thick! Such patience.
We then moved on to Bristol to drop off some presents for Emma and Martin’s birthday and subsequently ended up getting lost in Bristols “in constant flux” road system around Temple Meads. We eventually found the Leonardo Hotel where we had a lovely welcome, clean room and enjoyable light supper. The following day we met up with Emma and Martin for lunch at Cote in Broadmead, proceded again with a tortuous tour around Bristol centre roads which do not match the car or Apple sat nav information. I HATE BRISTOL ROADS! The drive home was fairly easy going until Cross Hands where we were restricted to the new 20mph zoning and were overtaken by bicycles and tortoises on our final bit of the journey. Home and into the comfort of our own respective beds where we can snore and fidget to our hearts desire without disturbing each other.
