The Eternity of Times Tables

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We wake to the sound of raindrops; lots of them.

Sally drives us into the middle of Bury so that we can see the Cathedral, which was closed when we were here a couple of days ago. We read that it was built in 1503 next to the ruins of the former Abbey. It's very large, and has a particularly impressive ceiling. Sally says she thinks that St Edmund's remains are buried under here, but I think I've read somewhere that this is subject to some debate. I consult the Google machine for clarification, but it seems that it's not too sure either. One school of thought is that they are buried here. There is however another theory that they were taken to France back in 1207. In 1901 England then asked for whatever had been taken to be sent back, and these remains are now in Arundel Castle in England's south. It seems however that there is still quite some doubt as to their authenticity. Bury St Edmunds is so named because it's supposed to be St Edmund's burial site. I suppose it might be a bit of a stretch to change the name to account for the doubt. "Maybe Bury St Edmunds" doesn't sound all that inspiring.

We go into the also very large and old St Mary's Church, which is almost next door to the Cathedral. It's still raining very hard as we go to leave, and while we're waiting for Sally to retrieve the car we get into conversation with the vicar. I must be getting old; he looks like he's about 15. We tell him we're from Melbourne, and he says that he's read just this morning that Melbourne has again won the title of the world's most liveable city. He says it rains way too much here for Bury St Edmunds to ever have a shot at that particular title.

Next stop is the very pretty village of Long Milford. It's still bucketing with rain. We walk through the very spooky ancient church graveyard. All the headstones are vertical slabs and it looks just like a graveyard from a horror movie; the only thing missing is the lightning. Most of the gravestones are so old that the inscriptions have become illegible. We read that there's been a church on this site since the time of Edward the Confessor, in the mid-1000s. The current structure was built in the mid 1500s. The so-called Lady Chapel in a separate room at the front of the main church was used as a school room at some stage in the last 500 years, and we can see times tables carved into a stone slab on the wall. These look the same as times tables did when I went to school. I'm not sure why I'm surprised about this; it would be a bit worrying if they'd changed.

We have lunch at an ancient pub in Long Milford and then drive back to Sally's place to say our farewells. We're pleased to hear that Sally plans to visit our homeland in the not too distant future.

Barbie takes us in to see Auntie Beth again. She's much more alert than she was yesterday, but not quite as responsive as she was on Sunday. Barbie and I have a long conversation about events in family history, and ask Beth to confirm our understanding. I'm surprised to learn that Beth caused an explosion in her laboratory at Guy's Hospital in London, and fourteen fire trucks had to come to put out the resultant blaze. Barbie's equally surprised to hear that Beth also caused an explosion in her laboratory at the Geelong Hospital. Beth smiles at the memories and nods to confirm both stories. It seems that she had quite a knack for causing explosions. I think she's done very well to get to 91 with all her fingers and toes still attached. As we leave she makes a big effort to open her eyes, and just manages to murmur "bye". I'm feeling very sad.

While we're visiting Beth we get a call from the Hilton Hotel in London to tell us that they've overbooked so have had to move us to their nearby sister hotel. We made this booking about four months ago, so I'm not very happy. I wonder if hotels overbook deliberately and then hope that someone doesn't turn up. I wonder how they decide who gets bumped. I would have thought you'd get priority if you booked a long time ago, but not so apparently, and we're clearly not important enough to matter. I'm sure if they'd realised that we left our heaviest bag there when we left on Sunday they would have left us where we were. I hope that they have to carry it up and down lots of stairs as penance.

We reach the outskirts of London at peak hour. The traffic doesn't seem to be any worse than it is during peak hour back home. We pass the London City Airport. I didn't know that there was an airport so close to the City's centre. It seems a minor miracle that planes are presumably able to take off and land here without running into any buildings.

Our replacement hotel is next to the Tower of London. I hope it isn't haunted. It's massive. Unlike most other hotels we've frequented the lifts are all up one end, and as Murphy's Law would have it our room is right up the other end. It's a long hike with our heavy bags. I thought it was the hotel that was supposed to be doing the penance......

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