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September 23, 2024
Sublime rambling
By Vicki L. George
The Bandera Prophet
Years ago, in lands far away, we found ourselves traveling for Hubby’s business. He was a supervisor on jobs to install transatlantic ocean fiber cable. We had some adventures, which I wrote home about, and now I’m sharing those emails publicly. Hope y’all enjoy!
English epistle 1
December 2, 1997
Good evening, everyone,
Well, believe it or not, British TV is worse and more boring than American TV! We arrived in our hotel yesterday a little after 4 p.m. It was an uneventful journey.
We couldn’t get set up online until about five minutes ago. It seems we needed one more adapter to hook up the modem and Hubby got that today while he was out with the team here to inspect the job site.
The Brits here swear this weather is atypical. Anyway, it’s very cold and very wet. Thirty-four degrees in London when we arrived at about noon. And at about 5 a.m. (this morning) we had a major storm with enough hail to pile up a little bit in places. It’s been raining off and on ever since we got here.
While Hubby was out I got a chance to explore Penzance. Everything is in walking distance. That’s good — driving the 27 miles from Newquay to Penzance was harrowing enough and I didn’t relish the idea of trying it by myself. I walked about four hours and went down the main street and checked out all the shops. Stopped at a bank and traded some dollars for pounds sterling. Checked out the launderette (laundry). Stopped by the post office to figure out how to send mail home, especially the rates.
By the way, at the launderette, the washing machines take L2 (2 pounds) and the dryer takes 20 pence for about 10 minutes. A local woman there told me it’ll take 60 pence to dry a full load. One pound equals $1.75. And there’s 100 pence to the pound. Think about that.
Petrol (gasoline) costs 70 pence per liter and a liter is just a little more that a quart. Think about that one for a while, too.
But the people are neat. Very friendly and helpful in their quiet, understated way. I really was told this morning to “take a walkabout round town.”
We’re right on the ocean. The hotel sits on a hillside with a gorgeous view of the bay and St. Michael’s Island, On the island is a hill and at the peak is a castle built in the 12th century. The family who owns it still live in it. You walk over at low tide on a causeway but at high tide you need to ride the ferry.
The hotel is a refurbished house 100 years old. The heaters and bathrooms have been added. High ceilings, tall windows and many still have the original wavy glass in them. There is no air conditioning (we don’t believe it’s needed as the swimming pool is heated and only open in the summer). The plumbing is somewhat outdated and rather loud.
There’s so much more to tell. I’ll send more later.
English epistle 1
December 2, 1997
Good evening, everyone,
Well, believe it or not, British TV is worse and more boring than American TV! We arrived in our hotel yesterday a little after 4 p.m. It was an uneventful journey.
We couldn’t get set up online until about five minutes ago. It seems we needed one more adapter to hook up the modem and Hubby got that today while he was out with the team here to inspect the job site.
The Brits here swear this weather is atypical. Anyway, it’s very cold and very wet. Thirty-four degrees in London when we arrived at about noon. And at about 5 a.m. (this morning) we had a major storm with enough hail to pile up a little bit in places. It’s been raining off and on ever since we got here.
While Hubby was out I got a chance to explore Penzance. Everything is in walking distance. That’s good — driving the 27 miles from Newquay to Penzance was harrowing enough and I didn’t relish the idea of trying it by myself. I walked about four hours and went down the main street and checked out all the shops. Stopped at a bank and traded some dollars for pounds sterling. Checked out the launderette (laundry). Stopped by the post office to figure out how to send mail home, especially the rates.
By the way, at the launderette, the washing machines take L2 (2 pounds) and the dryer takes 20 pence for about 10 minutes. A local woman there told me it’ll take 60 pence to dry a full load. One pound equals $1.75. And there’s 100 pence to the pound. Think about that.
Petrol (gasoline) costs 70 pence per liter and a liter is just a little more that a quart. Think about that one for a while, too.
But the people are neat. Very friendly and helpful in their quiet, understated way. I really was told this morning to “take a walkabout round town.”
We’re right on the ocean. The hotel sits on a hillside with a gorgeous view of the bay and St. Michael’s Island, On the island is a hill and at the peak is a castle built in the 12th century. The family who owns it still live in it. You walk over at low tide on a causeway but at high tide you need to ride the ferry.
The hotel is a refurbished house 100 years old. The heaters and bathrooms have been added. High ceilings, tall windows and many still have the original wavy glass in them. There is no air conditioning (we don’t believe it’s needed as the swimming pool is heated and only open in the summer). The plumbing is somewhat outdated and rather loud.
There’s so much more to tell. I’ll send more later.