Giving the bucket a rest

Saturday – March 9^th, 2013

I decided to have a ‘down-day’ today. ‘Take it easy, rest up, no running around’ was the motto for the day. In fact, my 7-day bus pass expired at 11:57 am. I got great value out of it. Without it, I would have paid more than $85 on bus fare in the week; the pass only cost $30. What a deal!

The main entertainment of the day was the Scotland v Wales Six Nations Rugby Match from Murrayfield. My mate (Barry) and I settled in to watch on BBC TV. That would not have been possible if I was in the US. Wales won by a score of 18 to 28, but it was not a good advertisement for the game – too many penalties; a record number. IRB needs to change some rules. Later, we watch Ireland v France – a better, more exciting match that ended 13 to 13.

Saturday is always football day in the UK. We watched highlights from several matches – including an abysmal decision in the Swansea match – it cost the Swans 1 point and maybe $500,000.

I packed a few things into my bags ready for the following morning’s departure to North Wales and a hook-up with Allan B. - my former (late 1960s) ‘post-grad’ colleague at Southampton University.

I don’t believe I left the house all day!

Sunday – March 10^th

I was up early-ish and used the remaining few hours of my most enjoyable stay with my friend and his wife, catching up on this blog-series and chatting about the preceding week and the past 55 years. Pat made several sandwiches for my 5-hour train trip to North Wales and I tried to get Barry’s two parrots, Barney and Chico, to say, ‘Bugger off, Yank!’, but they were too polite. The clock showed 11 am and we all knew we had to head to the station.  

At High Street Station, I hugged Pat and Barry and walked down the platform thinking of how I and my wife of just 6 weeks had left on a train to Manchester from that same place 42 years and 343 days ago - to fly to a new life in the US, leaving my parents watching, as my life-long friends did today.

 

The 11:55 am train to Cardiff Central pulled out and an a little more than an hour later I was boarding the connecting train to Llandudno Junction, North Wales – and a 3 hour train-ride that would reunite me with a University colleague whom, excepting for 2 days 11 years ago, I had not seen since 1968 at Southampton University we were conducting post-graduate geology research in Ireland. This would be a trip down memory lane, to be sure! 

To be continued . . .