Optimistic October: Fun with Kaleb and Jeremy (Cotswolds: Part 1)
I'm just back from a well-deserved weekend away in the Cotswolds. I'll try to give a good blow-by-blow account.
We stopped off at Chipping Norton on the way; its a nice place, which we used to stay at when I was a kid; my Uncle had a big house there, and we used to love running around the grounds.
The almshouses: We used to walk past here quite often.
The church apparently has a secret passage to my Uncle's old house; we never found it.
We also popped into a bookshop where Kaleb Cooper was due to do a book signing the next day; since that name probably means Diddly Squat to many of you, I'll explain that he's one of the farmers from Amazon's Clarkson's Farm, where he stars with Jeremy Clarkson, not a celebrity I'm particularly fond of, for many reasons, mostly because he generally comes across as annoying and pompous, and the fact that I usually associate him with the BBC's car-based TV show, Top Gear.
This is them here:
We then drove to a farm shop where apparently Boris got married; it was an interesting place to browse, but full of overpriced items.
I had a nice time on Friday night, despite having to have our dinner quite early (it seemed that the pub was expecting a large party), but when I got back I discovered a friend had sent me a pained (and profusely apologetic) text message all about a jokey social media update that he'd a) taken too seriously, and b) assumed was a criticism of something he'd done, and which I took half a day to figure out how to reply to.
There's something annoying about when I'm just settling down for a holiday and I'm having to deal with something unexpected, and a friend over-reacting out of the blue isn't something that I'm ever prepared for.
Also, I really hate to make someone feel bad; I'd rather not mention something, whoever was in the wrong.
I tried to think of all the things that I used to take for granted, and how much I've achieved; keeping down a job and having my own place are definitely good things to remember, as well as my increased confidence.
We spent Saturday morning at Snowshill Manor, which is a nice-looking bulding, but does have some quite cramped rooms; I learned a few interesting things about the original owner, like the fact that he was of mixed-race heritage (definitely interesting for Black History Month).
We stopped off at Stow-on-the-Wold later on, though it wasn't easy to get around. We headed to a bookshop, but found someone had tied up a small dog at the entrance, and because of the dog's lead being quite long, it had wandered into the entrance way of the shop, and was sitting in the middle like a guard dog. Not exactly a scary dog, but we decided not to go in; I didn't fancy having to carefully step around this dog without accidentally stepping on it.
Heading towards a coffee shop, we saw people dressed - randomly - as Star Wars characters; it was a bit strange. There were some interesting people in the shop, including a man sat at a table with his small dog on his lap.
We were most keen to get some lardy cake, and we enjoyed it, although we also realised that the name was a bit of a misnomer, because it's vegan.
I made my way to the toilets, which were through a bit of a maze; I got there to find some woman pointing to the occupied men's cubicle. I remembered how much more confident I am with small talk when the man we'd seen earlier, who had shown up with his dog, showed up, and I had to point out that there was a queue, which surprised him. We had a short conversation, which was slightly interrupted by the toilet becoming free. I kept all further small talk to a minimum because another man showed up, looking like he would not be happy if he was kept waiting (I'm told that I have an unfortunate tendency to assume people are grumpy/impatient when they're probably not, and I don't know if I've just spent too much time in London).
The dog owner didn't seem to hang around, or possibly used the ladies, as when I came out about 1 minute (or less) later, I saw him making his exit.
The really interesting thing happened when we reached the pub that evening; we were told that our table wasn't ready yet, mostly because a family were still there, and we got told to wait in the bar area. About ten minutes later, they offered us an alternative table in the bar area, as ours still needed cleaning, which we accepted.
It was next to the stairs to the upstairs dining area, so we could see all the comings and goings. I saw a man come down the stairs, and turned to the family, to say: "I think that's Kaleb".
No one else was convinced, and the man walked past again, with two other men, dressed a bit like farmers. But then, ten minutes or so later, someone else came down, and we immediately recognised...
Jeremy Clarkson!
Turns out, from what we learned from staff, was that they were there celebrating Kaleb's book launch.
We didn't get into conversations with them; I'm not sure what I'd have said, particularly since I have no interest in Top Gear and Clarkson's Farm.
Jeremy Clarkson is from Chipping Norton, and his farm shop is nearby, so it was maybe inevitable that we'd see him.
We stopped off at Chipping Norton on the way; its a nice place, which we used to stay at when I was a kid; my Uncle had a big house there, and we used to love running around the grounds.
The almshouses: We used to walk past here quite often.
The church apparently has a secret passage to my Uncle's old house; we never found it.
We also popped into a bookshop where Kaleb Cooper was due to do a book signing the next day; since that name probably means Diddly Squat to many of you, I'll explain that he's one of the farmers from Amazon's Clarkson's Farm, where he stars with Jeremy Clarkson, not a celebrity I'm particularly fond of, for many reasons, mostly because he generally comes across as annoying and pompous, and the fact that I usually associate him with the BBC's car-based TV show, Top Gear.
This is them here:
We then drove to a farm shop where apparently Boris got married; it was an interesting place to browse, but full of overpriced items.
I had a nice time on Friday night, despite having to have our dinner quite early (it seemed that the pub was expecting a large party), but when I got back I discovered a friend had sent me a pained (and profusely apologetic) text message all about a jokey social media update that he'd a) taken too seriously, and b) assumed was a criticism of something he'd done, and which I took half a day to figure out how to reply to.
There's something annoying about when I'm just settling down for a holiday and I'm having to deal with something unexpected, and a friend over-reacting out of the blue isn't something that I'm ever prepared for.
Also, I really hate to make someone feel bad; I'd rather not mention something, whoever was in the wrong.
I tried to think of all the things that I used to take for granted, and how much I've achieved; keeping down a job and having my own place are definitely good things to remember, as well as my increased confidence.
We spent Saturday morning at Snowshill Manor, which is a nice-looking bulding, but does have some quite cramped rooms; I learned a few interesting things about the original owner, like the fact that he was of mixed-race heritage (definitely interesting for Black History Month).
We stopped off at Stow-on-the-Wold later on, though it wasn't easy to get around. We headed to a bookshop, but found someone had tied up a small dog at the entrance, and because of the dog's lead being quite long, it had wandered into the entrance way of the shop, and was sitting in the middle like a guard dog. Not exactly a scary dog, but we decided not to go in; I didn't fancy having to carefully step around this dog without accidentally stepping on it.
Heading towards a coffee shop, we saw people dressed - randomly - as Star Wars characters; it was a bit strange. There were some interesting people in the shop, including a man sat at a table with his small dog on his lap.
We were most keen to get some lardy cake, and we enjoyed it, although we also realised that the name was a bit of a misnomer, because it's vegan.
I made my way to the toilets, which were through a bit of a maze; I got there to find some woman pointing to the occupied men's cubicle. I remembered how much more confident I am with small talk when the man we'd seen earlier, who had shown up with his dog, showed up, and I had to point out that there was a queue, which surprised him. We had a short conversation, which was slightly interrupted by the toilet becoming free. I kept all further small talk to a minimum because another man showed up, looking like he would not be happy if he was kept waiting (I'm told that I have an unfortunate tendency to assume people are grumpy/impatient when they're probably not, and I don't know if I've just spent too much time in London).
The dog owner didn't seem to hang around, or possibly used the ladies, as when I came out about 1 minute (or less) later, I saw him making his exit.
The really interesting thing happened when we reached the pub that evening; we were told that our table wasn't ready yet, mostly because a family were still there, and we got told to wait in the bar area. About ten minutes later, they offered us an alternative table in the bar area, as ours still needed cleaning, which we accepted.
It was next to the stairs to the upstairs dining area, so we could see all the comings and goings. I saw a man come down the stairs, and turned to the family, to say: "I think that's Kaleb".
No one else was convinced, and the man walked past again, with two other men, dressed a bit like farmers. But then, ten minutes or so later, someone else came down, and we immediately recognised...
Jeremy Clarkson!
Turns out, from what we learned from staff, was that they were there celebrating Kaleb's book launch.
We didn't get into conversations with them; I'm not sure what I'd have said, particularly since I have no interest in Top Gear and Clarkson's Farm.
Jeremy Clarkson is from Chipping Norton, and his farm shop is nearby, so it was maybe inevitable that we'd see him.