Sunday Mar. 26th, 2000 Ipswich and the time change
10 C/50 F Cloudy and drizzling
Kel
Woke up early, but Matt was still asleep so we snuck out for a smoke and a
little walk and then snuck back in and just read until the sleepyhead woke up.
After the usual coffee and such we swiped Matt's maps of Ipswich and Shotley and
strode out to the bus stop.... only to find the next bus wasn't for another
hour or so. (This is when we figured out about the daylight savings changeover)
With the rain we decided to wait it out indoors at the flat. Watched a little
TV and off we went to explore the
Ipswich Town Centre. On the way we passed a
pig farm with these enormous pigs! Several fields had bunny rabbits and
pheasants hopping around in 'em. On the way back we ended up passing a ton of
pheasants, so the fun of pointing them out began to pall.
Len spotted a big yellow helicopter coming down, and as we came around the
turn we could see it was cruising over the river near the
Orwell Bridge. Lots
of police cars, spectators and boats. Matt saw on the news someone reported a
jumper, but they never found anything and concluded it was a hoax, or someone
throwing trash over.
Walked over a good part of the town, but 99% of it is closed on Sunday, so
we just wandered looking in windows and getting familiar with the place. Sat on
a bench outside the
TIC next to St. Stephens Church
and watched a pigeon die at our feet... charming. I couldn't get Tom Lehrer out of my head.
Looks like that big pile of birdseed was poisoned. We still had 3 hours to kill
before the bus came, so we walked the route to the rail station to get the
timing down. That killed 15 mins.
The main reason for our trip into town was to buy groceries but
Sainsburys
is also closed on Sunday. Went into the Waterstones bookshop and grabbed a few
Pratchetts, a Gaimen, a Tom Holt that Matt had recommended, and the first of the
Feist Magician books for Matt. A shower hit so we popped into Burger King for a
quick bite. A Whopper Junior with cheese ran £1.59, numerically about the same
as home, then you include the exchange rate.. ;) Wandered a bit more but we had
new books and nothing to do so we spent the last hour sitting at the bus stop
and reading.
Got back to the flat and *poof* - no Matt. He showed up about 45 mins.
later and explained that he'd remembered to change his phone and clocks to BST but had
forgotten his watch. As there were no groceries, dinner wasn't going to
happen as planned so we popped into the Bristol Arms
to look at all the
incredible amount of ticky tacky they had, and then down to the Shipwreck for
eats. I had Pork Pie for the first time. Pretty nummy! Len and I had a pint
or two, (and Matt added another 2 or 3 to those he'd had waiting for us to get
back from town) and decided it was time to bring the chillun home. Besides, I
had to clean out the bite wound. Good thing England doesn't have rabies, cuz I
_bet_ Matt isn't up to date on his shots! ;)
Back home we chit chatted for a bit and then let Matt get to bed as he had
to be up early for work. Sat and read an hour and then went off to sleep ourselves.
