I opened my eyes at around 6 a.m. to find that Lola and Dad were already awake, albeit still in bed. I then remembered waking up in the middle of the night to bed sheets rustling as Lola made her way to the bathroom while dad was reading messages off his cellphone, the backlight bouncing off his face like the moon. Apparently, jet lag was still winning. I wondered if they had gotten some sleep after that but they both seemed fine and rested. I got up, glad that my nieces were thoughtful enough to get me ultra warm, super soft booties to waddle around the house in. I laid down Lola’s clothes for the day on the bed and jumped into the shower. A few minutes later, the girls had all tumbled out of Aidagere’s attic and we were having breakfast downstairs.
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| My ultra-cute, super soft, uber warm booties! |
After breakfast, we left the house to secure Lola's prescription for her injectable medicines in the town's health center. With her medical errands done, it was now time to give Lola a quick tour about town.
The sun was out again today, making the breeze more of cool than cold. We took pictures of the town proper, particularly near the bus stops which were filled with colorful flowers. Taunton was a retirement area so it was not unusual to see a lot of senior citizens walking around town either with companions or alone with their walking sticks or scooters. In fact, we had a number of inquiries from some locals who apparently found it a tad bit unusual for Lola to be walking accompanied - and assisted - by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
We slowly made our way to Smilies, Manang Apple’s favorite fish-and-chips shop which was at the far end of the town center, almost at Taunton’s egress to the motorway. But this was not before we dropped by a number of stores along the way. Our first stop was Waterstones, a store which seemed to be Britain’s version of Powerbooks. Manang was right, after all. Books in Britain could be cheaper. There were two shelves featuring very new titles on sale - £7 (P490.00) for two brand-new books! I fished out a John Grisham title for Mom and a book on the Plantaganet line for myself. Lola was walking around with Pau-pau, examining books and toys. The bookstore was very quiet, except for Lola half-voice projecting, half-yelling at Pau-pau while asking all kinds of questions. I could practically hear her wherever I was in the store, even in the most cloistered of sections. Aidagere also ran into two of her friends who, after introducing to us, supposedly were pleasantly surprised that we spoke very good English. Quite the contrary, I was also quite puzzled as to why our proficiency for the Queen's language was generating a repeated wave of surprise.
We also made a beeline for a sports shop whose name I cannot recall as of the moment. Dad did not bring running shoes so he decided to buy a trainers there, eventually settling for a white-and-blue Everlast pair which cost him about eight hundred pesos. Our last stop before hitting Smilies was Primark, a department store which Manang Apple called the British version of “Gaisano.” There were a lot of affordable clothes, shoes and accessories there and was the antithesis to the notion that shopping in England was expensive.
Manang Apple ordered breaded cod fillet when we got to Smilies. I had my fingers crossed because I had two pretty horrible experiences with cod previously that left me retching. But the fish was so good, tender, fresh and sat on a plate bigger than my face that I completely forgot about my nightmare and figured this was nothing tummy medicine could not remedy.
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| Apparently, there is no such thing as "fries" in Britain. Just...chips. :) |
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| Interesting Cokes in Britain which had reminders on the tags to share the bottle with someone. Bea got "Share a Coke with Sam," whereas Pau had "Share a Coke with Josh." My bottle had me gunning for world peace; thus, I was ordered to share my cola with friends. |
After lunch, Lola was starting to yawn and said she wanted to sleep (it was, after all, 9 p.m. in the Philippines). Manang Apple hailed a taxi and took her home whereas the rest of us decided to walk on the way back. On our way back, we passed by Argos, a shop that sells toys, electronics and DVDs. I had promised to buy Pau-pau something since she only got pastillas from home (whereas Bea and Aidagere had their Bieber and KPop memorabilia, respectively). In the end, she got a very pretty, striking humanoid doll with brown hair and a lavender shirt which led to her being teased endlessly that the doll was going to come to life in the middle of the night and attempt to take over her soul. Okay, so that was not exactly a good joke but with Pau pouting all the way back to the house, it was pretty funny.
Instead of taking the route through the park by the river the day before, the girls brought us to the other end of High Street which opened to the gates of the beautiful Vivary Park. There were yellow and red flowers all in full bloom in the midst of tall, sturdy trees.
Pigeons hopped, skipped and fluttered all around the garden whereas ducks paddled their webbed feet along the park's pond, waiting for bread crumbs from generous park goers. Squirrels also scurried about the trunks of huge trees which looked a lot like redwood, chasing each other as they tried to grab each other's acorns.
A number of wood benches were also scattered sporadically all over the park. I approached one and found a metal plate inscribed with a dedication to a departed person who apparently loved the park, reminding me of a similar bench in the movie “Notting Hill,” where Hugh Grant read a book to Julia Roberts who lay on his lap.
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| One of the many benches in Vivary Park (above) which had metal plate with a corresponding dedication to a loved one. This immediately brought to mind the closing scene in "Notting Hill," pictured below. |
We walked around the park and through a small bridge which took us past the Vivary golf course, a football field and jungle gym of sorts which saw people traipsing through wood blocks suspended in mid-air, about three stories high.
As we walked through the quieter side of Taunton, we first passed by a quaint cottage with the trademark tiled roof and brick walls. Instead of walking along the road, Bea took a shortcut and entered a gap in the low stone gate of an old Anglican church.
The church’s steeple and architecture harkened to the Regency era and I could almost see men in coattails and top hats and women in their finest muslin making their way out of the church, greeted by a member of the clergy. Pine trees were planted all over the church grounds. Interspersed with the trees were old stone tombstones and aging sepulchres. A wooden bench nestled between two walls of the church was a nice, quiet place to just sit and read. I checked out some of the tombstones and a number of those buried died in the 1800s. I made a mental note to perhaps make some grave rubbings if I found interesting epitaphs.
When we finally got home, Dad lumbered slowly upstairs to get some sleep. Manang Apple asked Aidagere and me to get some supplies in Tesco which was about three blocks away and had racks overflowing with cheesecake, flapjacks and everything else creamy, sweet, artery-clogging and diabetes-inducing. On the way to Tesco, Aidagere brought me to their old flat and, later, to the school she used to attend with Bea prior to getting placement in the town's local college. We then took a detour to French Weir, a quiet grove of a park with tall trees surrounding a football field. The River Tone passed through the park, gurgling quietly as it slithered in a comfortable pace along the park's perimeter.
There were a number of children playing football in the park while a white-haired lady quietly watched them while seated on a bench. It sure made a pretty picture which I had to capture with my camera.
Aidagere and I exited French Weir through Longrun Meadow where, according to her, students would hang out after school. There were a couple of dog owners taking their pets for an afternoon walk and I spent about a minute looking at the playful pooches jump along the tall grass in the meadow. I was quite content and happy, having ticked two items off my bucket list today: a fish-and-chips meal and a country walk.
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