FROM BATH 1

I am in Bath. England.

Where are the pictures?? you ask. right. I'll get on that. sorry...I forgot the adaptor thingy for the camera. Marcel and I are going out bright and early tomorrow to find one. Then we are going to Beechen Cliff for a picnic. perfect!

So well, firstly I have to say, flying with a 20 monther is, well, difficult. My boy was fantastic, but two hours in a night is just simply not enough, The poor kid. Also thank the heavens that I didn’t have to drive, as I was initially supposed to, and Janelle, our amazing spontaneous Australian who hitched along for the ride, drove instead.

We are a hodge-podge group, three from my sister's Jane Austin Club, who drink tea and get dressed up regularly. My brother, who got dragged into this and who has a very theatrical spirit, and loves, but doesn’t admit it, anything that gets him attention, myself and Marcel. The three from the club include my sister, a die-hard purist when it comes to Austin protocol, Nadia, her ex roomate and an artist with a romantic heart and their friend Carlos, whom I have yet to place in reference to the Jane Austin club except that there is a Waignwright connection, and he’s from Mexico...go figure...

So here we are.

We rented a three story house, with four bedrooms. sleeps nine. This was a fantastic idea on my sisters part. A truly, truly fantastic idea. It was inexpensive because there are so many of us - like 480 pounds...for nine days. Total. We all have a nice bed, a full kitchen a lounge and its walking distance to every sight-seeing thing in the city.

We had a devotional here tonight, and met the local Bahai’s. It was lovely and much to short. I could have visited all day. The one couple is from Bradford, which is where we will take the canal boat ride to on Thursday. From their description I am going to love it there. Bath is lovely, but I would never live here, and to be honest I’ve had enough of expensive shopping in old European quarters during my time in Barcelona. So much so, I can’t enjoy it. The materialism doesn’t sit well in the stomach....even when couched in pink sandstone, and cobblestone streets...

But then, today we did what every tourist should do...(but none of them seem to as we were defiantly the only ones out today..) we dressed up like we lived almost two hundred years ago and franced around in our frocks (as our Australian friend put it). We looked amazing. My brother as well, all in regency attire. (Carlos's costume wasn’t ready yet, but he has one) Marcel even had one, and at the moment his favorite toy is a wooden train that, even though is not quite period appropriate, just looked darling. (as did the crochet hat I made him). We won every costume prize there was to be had - the best dressed lady went to Janelle ( who was wearing Tara's ball gown) the best dressed child went to Marcel and the best dressed man went to Cam (my brother). All the costumes were hand made by my sister with help from Nadia. So they really won every prize. We wanted to go on a photo shoot, but nap time got in the way.

As we were walking to the event in the park, there were a couple back roads we went down, and I would see one of our group, with no cars, or modern looking people in the way, and I tell you, it was really just out of a movie. or the past. it looked lovely. I’m not really a Jane Austin fan...simply because I haven’t read her books (nor do I have time, really) but can one ever help being a romantic?? Just beautiful.. photos are coming don’t worry.

Anyways, that’s my post. I'll do my best to keep you informed, although internet access is limited. And I was going to start some more slippers tonight but my needle is in the car parked ten blocks away. Oh well, I need a shower anyways.

talk to you all soon!