Darn Saarf: The Story So Far

Yep, it's time for another week's holiday, us Northerners (that is, my parents and myself) going Down South to stay with the friends we have down here. The sheep get some time to themselves ;) We do this a few times each year, and there doesn't ever seem to be a shortage of places to go or things to do. A lot of people spend so much time exploring other countries that they forget to explore their own!

The weather so far has been absolutely glorious - considering it's October, it's been like a Summer's day every day so far. It's bright, the sky's blue, it's warm and we're all wandering around in t-shirts. A welcome return to doing so, since we just spent the last few weeks getting accustomed to the approaching Winter up in the chillier North, where we've been consistently turning on the heating, wearing jumpers/coats and putting up umbrellas.

Saturday

Saturday was mostly travelling down, followed by chilling out and drinking so there's not too much to say about that.

Sunday

Sunday consisted of - markets! Doesn't sound interesting? Oh, but it is. To a Northerner who's used to 'market' meaning a bunch of people selling fruit and veg on a cobbled street, and lots of old women getting off the bus and pulling those little trollies around, you'd probably be forgiven for making the wrong assumptions. Down here, they're a bit different. I think the best description for the market we went to on Sunday was "Del Boy land".


"Where it comes from is a mystery"

Yes, the Trotters would be proud of that place - sorry I can't remember where it was apart from "London Somewhere" - but visualise a bunch of hardened cockneys flogging the very reasonable bits and pieces (whether it be clothing, home entertainment, toys, snacks, meat etc etc) at prices that make you think "so which lorry did those fall off, then?". There were a few dodgy DVDs knocking about as well!

Many of the traders there were selling directly from the side of their trucks/lorries, using PA systems to make their offers, almost like an auction at times. They'd then pass the items down to their colleagues on the ground who would make the exchange. Quite fascinating to watch.

The very mixed ethnic culture down here (as compared to mostly native English in our home area) has its advantages too, as all manner of snacks and meals are available from all over the world - Indian, Greek, Chinese to name some of the most popular. There are all sorts on those markets that you'd just never see up our way, so it's fascinating to me.

There were no end of bargains to be had, especially clothing at prices best described as 'batshit insane' - so it would've been very easy to spend a fortune saving money. However there is still a lot to do and a lot of places to go, all of which will need funding, so I managed to avoid having a mass spending session there. It wasn't easy!

We also visited some watermill place - involving a decent meal and a little mill-tourist-building-thingie that generated its own electricity - surprisingly well considering the river was flowing pretty slowly. Took some pics on my mobile but they didn't turn out too well - that will teach me not to bring the proper camera!

On the evening was a pub quiz - we lost (we were a team of 5 whilst most others had 8 or more) but it was an excellent night and plentiful beer was consumed!

Monday

We managed to fit a lot into Monday. Starting off with a visit to a place in Braintree... hmm what's this?


Freeport, eh? Where's the wizard guild? Lucan D'Lere? Dark elves? Which era is it from anyway, the Age of Turmoil or the Age of Destiny?


You know, it looks more like Qeynos to me. Given the lack of the Claymore at the end, it must be Freeport after all - from the Age of Reality. A-ha!

OK, apologies to those who haven't got a clue what I'm rambling on about - Freeport is a city in Everquest and Everquest II, so it tickled me a bit when I saw this place with the same name. Freeport, Braintree is just a big outdoor shopping place (quite a good one, and seemingly quite famous). Whilst clothes shops aren't my cup of tea, they did have some more interesting places selling chocolate, coffee, gadgets etc etc. All in all a fairly interesting spot. And I bought some chocolate covered coffee beans - mmmm ^_^

After a late lunch we moved on to another tree - Tiptree this time. The jam makers!


My namesake - a Lister machine. It has something to do with making jam.


More stuff, jam making for the use of.


One of the many fake 'clone' jams by other companies - Traffic Jam - fnar fnar.

Once finished with looking around we sat down to a ridiculously English 'afternoon tea' type thing. Not something I normally go in for, but all experiences are worth experiencing! I can see why it was so popular back in the 'grandparent age', it's very pleasant eating a warm scone covered with speciality jam and cream whilst drinking a nice cup of... well, coffee actually, I didn't go so far as to drink tea. Normally I'd sooner go for a pint of real ale and a packet of pork scratchings, but it is nice to experience the traditional, civilised English cuppa. Bloody nice those scones were, I dread to think what it'd do to your waistline if you shoveled all that butter, jam and cream on too often though!

After this and the travelling back we were still left with some reasonable time to wind down on the evening, catch up on t'internet and drink some tins.

Tuesday - part 1

Tis now Tuesday, a designated 'stay at the house, relax and catch up with the world' day. We'll probably be popping out in the afternoon for some food and beer etc, but apart from that it's a good time to have a rest, write blog updates etc.

I also decided to start learning Japanese using the website Japanese Online as it's something I've wanted to do for a while, and there's only so much message board posting and blogging you can do in a full day. So... Kon'nichi wa, watashi wa Deriku Risuta. Hajimemashite. Heh heh heh - wish me luck, think I'll need it!