England - don’t flush tea bags down the toilet - day 5
Every vacation has its mundane moments. The challenge is, to look for the adventure in those.
You know you’re in England when…
So, amongst other things, today was wash day. I thought our biggest challenge was going to be finding a laundromat that was open on Sunday.
We drove 20 minutes only to walk into the minuscule room and discover that we needed British coins to make the machines work. Everywhere we have gone, including paying toilets, have accepted contactless cards, but no, laundromats are still old school apparently.
A helpful woman saw my dilemma and proposed a solution… A somewhat convoluted, time-consuming one, but I didn’t see that we had much choice.
Go to the bank, one street over, withdraw from the ATM. Take the paper money to a store, buy something and ask for change in coins,
Sigh…OK. Except that the stores were all reluctant to part with their coins after we had already purchased something. It took three purchases in two stores to do two loads of wash. It took us longer to get the money to do the wash than It took us to actually do the wash itself.
Then off to the most adorable little village, you could imagine, Bourton on the Water, in search of pastries for a family gathering, we are headed to next.
4 generations.
So, I was born in Cheltenham, and still have a lot of family there many who I have not seen in decades. My cousin Bob and his wife Anne, were so kind to offer a gathering at their house so that we could all come together for a wonderful reunion.
My mother passed away in 2008, these are her two surviving sisters. Aunty Betty on the right is 98 years old, and Aunty Pat, in the middle, is 88 years old. They are both as sharp as a tack, have retained their sense of humor, and the one in the middle is still driving. I have some serious longevity in my family.
And then there was a proper English tea, complete with scones and clotted cream and strawberry jam, little sandwiches, and tea, cakes, and a local specialty I remember fondly from my childhood called dripping cakes.
And this is Bob, my cousin, from yesterday who saved the day and drove all over hells half acres to get us a rental car. He has helped us feel so loved and taken care of.
Jai even made a surprising friend of my cousin Graham, who was a race car driver earlier in his life and they talked cars for quite some time.
One of my favorite funny moments for the day though was when we went to use the ‘Public conveniences’ in Bourton (God, don’t you love how discreet the English are even when naming their toilets), And the sign on the inside of the stall door read:
Please do not flush teabags down the toilet…
Well, OK then I will make sure not to do that 😂
