My dad's cousin Paul came to pick me up and we drove down to Horsebridge, the town in which Ba lives with my great uncle Bill. I think Uncle Bill is as close as I've got to an English grandfather. He is very reserved but is constantly making wise cracks. (Cracking wise?)
This is the room I stayed in. I have stayed here before with Evelyn when we have gone to visit Ba. It is just about the most comfortable bed in the world. Ba has upgraded to a laptop, so I had internet access. Gone are the days of hiking to the Hailsham library! (Hailsham is the nearest real town. I don't know if Horsebridge even really counts as it's so small.)
After I got home from the airport Uncle Bill was waiting up to say hello to me. I ate some quiche, a bagel, grapes and apple juice and went off to bed.
Saturday morning I got up and took a shower, had another bagel (these were the first bagels I'd had in quite a long time!) and Bill took me and Ba to the train station in Polegate. We caught the train into London Victoria (it takes a little over an hour) and then took the number 11 bus to Covent Garden.
We ate lunch at a really nice little bistro called Tutton. We both just got soup and the dessert of the day and skipped eating a main meal. The dessert was a lovely apple tart with really, really good cinnamon ice cream.
Ba got the mushroom soup with basil cream.
I had the French onion. This is probably my favorite soup of all time, though really good corn chowder and lentil soup rank pretty high too.
After lunch we walked literally a few feet over to the nearest Monsoon. It was quite small but I found a purse and several earrings that I really liked. We then went to Top Shop and Next, and I found lots of stuff I liked. I had planned to make this sort of my shopping weekend, and it couldn't have been easier. All the stores were near each other and I was able to find stuff I liked pretty quickly.
It got dark by about four p.m. so we took the bus back to the train station and then took the train back to Polegate. Bill came and picked us up and we all got fish and chips. There are two fish and chip places across the street from each other, John's and Ken's. I commented on this and Bill told me that Ken's was "horrible," only he pronounced it 'arr-able.
The fish was good but I wasn't crazy about the chips. I watched a little cricket with Bill and then headed upstairs to unpack all my shopping loot. Then I didn't do a whole lot else, just read the pile of magazines Ba had gotten for me. In my room Ba put a little basket of goodies just like a hotel, with chocolate, tissues, face wash, and lotion. So sweet!
Sunday we got up and had tea and I said hello to Ba's brother and his wife, Richard and Jean. We then went to see my Dad's niece Emma and her two children. It was a pretty short visit, and then Bill drove us into Eastbourne, a nearby seaside town. We first stopped at Tesco and picked up a few things. (Because a trip to England without a trip to the grocery is apparently an impossible thing.)
We went to the Curzon theatre where Ba said she used to see pictures as a child and saw Slumdog Millionaire. It was a beautiful movie, but really very sad. Not the "feel good picture of the year" it was purported to be.
After the film we went to a coffee shop and had cappuccinos together. I think Ba and I are actually quite a like in our tastes. Oh and before the movie we went and had Sunday roast at a little restaurant. It wasn't all that good but it was better than I expected and pretty typical English.
We took the bus back to Hailsham and Bill once again came to pick us up. We got home and watched the news and I had scones with cream and jam. Bill remembered that I used to like them when I had come to visit before and insisted that I get some.
Then I left bright and early Monday morning, catching the 5:15 a.m. train into Gatwick airport. All around a super fun and relaxing weekend. And Sussex is so beautiful, even a week after a snow storm everything was green and the snow drops were coming out.
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