Starting from where I left off in my last post, I came back to Oxford for two days before leaving again, this time to Somerset to stay with Bethany. Despite it being a longer journey overall, my trip was much less troublesome than the one to Hungerford (not having to go through Reading probably had something to do with that) and I arrived in Yeovil the afternoon of the 29th. That evening, Bethany and I watched (parts of) three films: Northanger Abbey, a recent version of A Christmas Carol, and the second half of The Duchess.
The next day Bethany had to work and her dad was out for the day. I occupied myself by watching The Fellowship of the Ring (extended version) on my own - which was quite nice because I haven't seen any of the Rings films in years and Bethany wasn't that keen on watching it again. After Bethany got back from work, we took her adorable spaniel, Ollie, for a walk (or rather romp) in a rather soggy field, which was a lot of fun. That evening, we had planned to go to church but it turned out Bethany's church wasn't running an evening service that week with it being in the middle of Christmas and New Year. So we went back home, I finished The Fellowship of the Ring and we chatted online with some other members from The Lions Call.
On the Monday, New Year's Eve, we went to Yeovil town centre. I hadn't had the chance to see much of it when I stayed with them over Easter since we spent so much time visiting other places. It was pouring with rain when we set off and too windy for umbrellas to be of much use but we bundled up in coats and made our way there. Yeovil has a rather nice town centre with many of the standard high street shops I'm becoming familiar with in the UK. Bethany had a few things on her shopping list that she needed to get, so our main goal was visiting places that had the things she needed, which was a good excuse to explore various shops. We went for a cheap option for lunch by visiting the local Burger King. It's still nowhere near as good as Steers (the South African equivalent fast food chain) but better than the MacDonalds burger I'd had a week before. After lunch, the rain had stopped making our afternoon traipsing about town much more enjoyable. I found a really nice jersey (or sweater or jumper - depending on your dialect) marked down from £14 to £5 (they have crazy mark-down sales after Christmas here which really makes you wonder about their mark-up prices).
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| St John's Church, Yeovil |
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| Yeovil centre |
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| Yeovil centre |
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| Yeovil house on the way home |
Bethany's aunt and her dad's friend, Julie, came over for New Year's Eve. We had very yummy finger snacks for supper followed by charades, a game of Trivial Pursuit and a QI Christmas quiz. There were two questions in the quiz relating to Danish Christmas traditions which I could guess the answers to based on my limited knowledge of Danish Christmas vocabulary. I felt it necessary to clarify that I really don't know any Danish besides those and other food-related terms. At midnight, we let off a few small fireworks left over from Guy Fawkes. We also watched the London Thames fireworks display on TV which was beautiful.
On New Year's Day Bethany's dad, Simon, drove us down to the Dorset coast. They'd been thinking of taking me to Cheddar Gorge, but were worried it might be closed due to the floods and/or the holiday. We went to a small town called Abbotsbury where there is a pebble beach bank (with sea on the one side and a lagoon on the other) known as Chesil Beach. On the way, we stopped at the Hardy Monument, a structure built in 1884 in memory of Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy. He was flag captain to Lord Nelson and was with Nelson when he died. According to tradition, Nelson's dying words to him were "take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, Hardy, take care of poor Lady Hamilton. Kiss me, Hardy. God bless you, Hardy". The monument is well positioned to give a beautiful view of the Dorset countryside as far as the coast. The weather was sunny and clear though there was a freezing icy wind that made us glad to get back in the car as soon as possible.
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| New Year's Eve |
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| View from Hardy's Memorial |
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| View of coast from Memorial |
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| Hardy's Memorial |
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| Looking back |
At Abbotsbury we went via the swannery (swan farm) but it too was closed for the public holiday. We struggled to find parking as there was a mock hunt going on and the first parking lot we went to was full of horse trailers. We found another one, slightly less full, though very muddy, which was very close to the beach. Besides also being a pebble beach, it was very different to the cove beach they took me to over Easter, as this was long and straight with small though regular waves. After sitting and enjoying the view and a lunch of leftovers from the night before, we took a walk along beach. It was a strange sight for me having beautiful rolling green hills on one side and sea on the other with a pebble beach underfoot, but was amazing none-the-less. We could see the swannery from a distance and came as far as some concrete barriers which had been used as tank barriers during World War II. After rescuing a lady whose posh car had become stuck in the muddy car park, we headed back to Abbotsbury. We had tea or hot chocolate and cake in a lovely tea place which was an old school house. We got back and after a roast dinner (or as they call it, "tea") we watched all watched Miss Potter, the biographical film about Beatrix Potter, together. It made me much more keen to visit the Lake District at some point while I'm here (probably in the summer after exams).
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| Chesil Beach |
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| Chesil Beach |
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| Naturally smiley-faced stone |
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| Bethany and me |
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| Abbotsbury hills |
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| Chesil Beach |
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| Abbotsbury swannery |
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| World War barriers |
On Wednesday, Simon was back to work and Julie went back home. Bethany and I took a bus ride to a small village not far across the county border called Sherborne. It's a small quaint village with one main street of interesting shops and an old abbey. We browsed the shops and then visited the abbey which has an interesting history. It actually has links with Winchester Cathedral, which I'd just seen a week before, since the earliest church on the site was created when the Diocese of Winchester was divided in 705 AD. After the Norman invasion, the seat of the regional bishop was moved to Salisbury, but worship continued on the site. In 998 Benedictine monks had been brought to work at the abbey. This angered the community as the monks replaced the secular canons who had been running the church before. Not only that, but the towns people were no longer allowed to meet in the abbey itself but in a smaller church attached to it.
In 1437, tensions between the townsfolk and monks grew, mainly over the baptismal font which was located in the main church and which the townsfolk had to get special permission to use. They commissioned their own font to be built but the abbot was not impressed and got a "stout butcher" to break into the church and destroy it with a hammer. After that, a riot broke out and a flaming arrow caused damage to the part of the abbey. Eventually the pope intervened and the towns people were made to pay for the damage. With the reformation, the abbey was taken away from the monks and returned to the towns people who proceeded to tear down their separate small church. The abbey still operates as a working church today.*
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| Chapel next to Abbey |
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| Sherborne high street |
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| Sherborne town |
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| Waiting for the bus |
We headed back to the bus stop which (like the rest of the town) had an archaic flavour to it with a wooden bus shelter, and waited for the next bus. When we got back to Yeovil, we watched some TV and had dinner. I packed my stuff and we headed off to the train station for 9.00pm. I'd booked a late train because the price for the trip was about half what it was during peak hours. It was quite nice travelling by night, as the trains and stations were fairly quiet and empty. The only mishap along the way was that I left my lovely orange hat which my mum had knitted and sent for Christmas on the train when I switched at Bath. I'd been wearing the hat almost non-stop since Christmas and it matched my coat so well. I was really sorry to loose it, though apparently mom has enough wool to make another. I should have had to wait half an hour at Didcot station for my train back to Oxford but when I arrived, the previous train heading to Oxford had been delayed and arrived about 10 minutes after me, so I could take that one instead. I got back to Oxford just after midnight - tired but happy. It was a really good New Year and I'm grateful again to Bethany and Simon for being so hospitable.
*Information on the history of Sherborne Abbey from the tourist information leaflet they handed out to us
