A Journey to the Deepest South

Way back in late September/ early October I was approached by a Mr Kevin Hawley of Agape fame concerning a trip he was planning for the Christmas holidays down south. Asked if I’d be willing or able to help out on the transportation front I agreed and so on 27th December I found myself driving me, Kevin, his girlfriend Lauren, and Ms KC Clark down to Andy Moll’s humble abode in Jane Austen country, aka Hampshire. And so began a very, very cool week exploring a part of this great land that I am all too unfamiliar with.

Most of Tuesday consisted of driving down to Hampshire and meeting the Moll’s senior, so it was Wednesday when the real exploring, adventure began. We drove down to the New Forest (founded by William the Conquerer) and took in some breathtaking scenery, quaint English towns, random wild horses everywhere, and even quainter English pubs. All in all it was a lot of fun, though the highlight has to be the end part of the day which invlovled us all taking a short and very enjoyable walk.

Essentially what began as a simple 2-3 mile walk became a little more fun as darkness closed in and the temperature dropped, and the English contingent decided to extend the walk around a small lake. Unfortunately the lake was a little bigger than we expected, and also involved crossing frozen streams and bogs, as well as moving through patches of thicket. However inspite of occasional signs of American defeatism ( ;-) ), the English contingent again insisted on us continuing all the way around and not giving up despite the general lack of path at times, or biting cold and general darkness. After all, this is the kind of thing that makes Brit’s ‘great’. Walking around lakes in the cold and darkness is ‘character building.’ Ha!

After Wednesdays expedition training, Thursday was an altogether more intellectual day as out intrepid group set out to take in the ancient city of Oxford, though before we entered the more ancient part of said city we stopped to check out CS Lewis’ grave. On entering the city centre we split into two groups and me, Andy and KC took in the sights and sounds of the Eagle and Child, the tiny pub at which C.S. Lewis and J.K. Tolkien would meet with other aspiring authors and discuss ideas etc. Though I am not the worlds biggest Lewis or Tolkein fan it was really cool to be in a place that they once spent their evenings, and though we sat and ate dinner in a more modern part of the pub, it was easy to see why they like the Eagle and Child so much – such a good atmosphere.

Having taken most of the afternoon eating dinner in the Eagle and Child we were left with precious little time to see the rest of Oxford, though we did get the chance to go to the original Blackwell’s book shop which was huge, and provided endless amounts of book browsing and eventually buying. All three of us bought Lewis books, and I also bought an amusing little book which should be issued at all STINTers me thinks. More on that at another time.

Anyway after a brisk, but enjoyable walk through some of the older college areas with an authentic medieval Starbucks in-hand, we returned to the Eagle and Child and hung out with Lauren and Kevin.

This is getting long I know but there is so much to cover. On Thursday evening we again split up and the group now known as Willmollark (me, Moll, KC) headed to Andy’s local for some grub (a quality little place where you can buy a pint of ‘Festive Feasant’ which even had an inspired little lyric: If you’re thirsty and fancy a beer full of seasonal cheer, a pint of Feasant is exceedingly pleasant you’ll be wanting to drink it all year!’. Marvellous). After that we then went to an even nicer pub which was a converted water mill. So, so cool. They have good pubs down south.

However, the highlight, and also low point, of the evening was convincing KC that it is an ancient tradition to throw purple powder onto the floor of the House of Commons, symbolising as it does the last throws of Scottish Independence, the purple powder reflecting the colour of the Scottish thistle. I’m sorry KC for deceiving you so, but, it was funny. Still – many apologies…

Friday marked our visit to London which was great. On the one-hand I haven’t really had the opportunity to see the capital as an adult so it was cool checking out the Thames and Westminster albeit briefly, and in freezing rain. Secondly, after again splitting, we got the chance to check out the British Museum which was breathtaking from the architecture of the building itself, to the staggering array of treasures that reside inside. It was so odd, and yet so amazing to walk around ancient Egyptian, Greek and even Assyrian artefacts, and then to go up a flight of stairs and find an impressive array of Roman objects. Awesome. And with four hours in there we only saw about a third of the collection. Another trip is needed methinks.

After the museum we headed to a nearby Thai restaurant for a delicious meal (I had Penang curry – mmmmmmmmmm) and then on to Scrooge the Musical at the London Palladium, which was brilliant. I really, really enjoyed the whole performance.

It was such a good few days, even the journey home in a very, very, very packed Fiat Punto being a great day as we stopped off at Warwick Castle, which inspite of being more like a theme park than a castle, was cool.

So much fun. Thanks to Andy Moll for the hospitality, to KC for the fanatastic company all week, and to Kevin and Lauren for not minding having three pesky history and literary buffs hanging around them all week.