'nother day another aunt..

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Well near Logleat but a journey to get here!

Moya, Gerry and self went up to London on Monday evening to go to a wine tasting and to have dinner with Alex and hgis squeeze (Zenyp??). This involved the usual challenge with the British rail system, bitterly cold wind so the waiting room was locked and staff hed buggered off. The ticket machine had gone out in sympathy so we boarded with out the usual formality of geting a ticket. Got to Waterloo and told a totally startled railway employee that we would like to pay please and he sent us over to the happiest rail employee I'd ever met. Nothing was too much trouble and we had a joke about this and that along the way. The upshot was he managed to save us about a third and we all left feeling positive.

The wine tasting included a range of wines of reasonable quality from all over the world, I got talking to a french woman who was working there and she steered me towards the best of them and even gave us a couple of free samples. We finished with a promtional gin cocktail (gin cosmopolitan) and then into the cold and gale tossed night to find a bottle shop to get some wine to compliment Alex's food. I bought a couple of Aus wines because I knew what the standard would be (Grant Burge '02 Barossa cab merlot and a De Bortolli '05 Clare shiraz - clearly the winner).
Alex cooked mackeral very well and we barely managed to finish all the wine!

Next mornng, Tuesday Helen arrived around 10.00 to take us both to Valerie's and Percy's in Warminster. We had about 90 minutes to chat and catch up before arriving for the never ending picnic that is a stay at Valerie's.

After some lunch we headed out for a drive around the local villages and ended at Stourhead, a national trust property that was unfortunately closed because of the danger from high winds. We visited the local church that was over 200 years old when Columbus bumped into America!
Had a cuppa and then back to Warminster for tea and an evening using a scrabble board as a conversation stimulus.
Wednesday we took a walk around the village after breakfast and then a drive to my cousin's house to collect her absentee mail. Valerie and Percy have been a constant for as long as I can remember and kind to me beyond all deserving, Although in many ways they are quite separate they seem to compliment each other. I love them both and while I know Percy is not demonstrative he does communicate a genuine and deep affection. Valerie looks more and more like my memory of my grandmother at a similar age. I do not think the picture does her justice, infact there should not be a picture of Valerie that does not capture her smiling. I am reluctant to take any photo's in part because this is a private time and in part because I don't want a posed picture that is inevitably going to miss the essential element. Percy and Valerie both I prefer to keep as a living evolving memory and one picture will never capture that.
We say our goodbyes to Percy as he will be out when we return

We had lunch, Helen Valerie and I at a pub called the Angel in a village that I will look up later. Although I wanted to treat they conspired while my back was turned and treated me. I was able to sort a problem on Valerie's computer so now it at least runs at a decent speed and has all her photos loaded.

I slept a little on the way back which was just as well as the next day we are off to Napoli and up at 4.00am

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Photos

Valerie
Looking more like my grandmother than I thought possible