Mulled Wine Required
Herne Bay is another little coastal town along the Thames Esturary, so for an essay break Esther, other Jennifer and I went up to look around and did a lot more walking than we'd ever intended. Despite being a week away from Christmas, and home having 20 cm of snow, here was a gray but clear +15, occasionally even seeing blue sky. We walked along the coast and pier, munching on pastries and taking photos. From our spot we could see in the distance the front of an old medieval building farther down the coast, so we decided to head in that direction.
A five mile trek later we were getting closer, passing everyone and their dog out for a walk. One lady had a couple Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, one who was very attached to me and kept following us. I was very tempted to take it home with me. We walked along the cliffs and finally got to the Reculver Towers. Our first stop however was the pub in the King Ethelbert Inn to sit down and stuff our faces for a bit. The facade we saw from the distance was the only recognizable structure, the rest was beaten down walls and piles of rocks.
It was at this point that we realized the next bus back to Herne Bay was in 3 hours, so we began the trek back along the road. I was having a flashback from Normandy four years ago with Nancy, Scott and Mike wandering all over the beaches and hills because the buses were only there seasonally. Maybe I'll learn for next time. Fortunately this time the sky wasn't dumping rain on us and we eventually got to a bus stop and home.
Friday we had our final carol concert in the afore mentioned adorable old church. It was a lovely small concert with another Christmas party afterwards. All British Christmas parties must have mulled wine and mince pies, it's a rule. I was trying to post a video but the software was imovie was annoying me and I rage quit, may try later, or I'll just put it on Facebook if that works.
We had one last Whychurst training session before Christmas break. And I learned a new British word: 'muggins.' Apparently it's referring to yourself in a jokingly insulting manner. I was very confused for a bit, I'd thought it was someone's last name and I hadn't met them yet. We played all the normal games; VIP escort, and defend the gate but this time we added some new ones, defensive last stand and Manhunt hide and seek. For Manhunt you have to balance between defensible and sneaky, if you're lying down or crouched, you get stabbed pretty quick. It's really hard to hide in chainmail, you can't exactly be sneaky when every step you take sounds like sleigh bells jingling. I had a couple goods spots, they just had to be low to the ground, the extra 20 pounds on my shoulders didn't make climbing a viable option. Townie had no such problem, we now know to look for him in tree tops, rafters, and on the roof; had to throw a couple javelin to get him out. We had our traditional post-battle pub gathering and started talking about the upcoming shows, very excited for the coming year!
I'm off to Stowmarket this week and then Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany after that so my once a week posts will probably stop but I'll be posting a ton of photos when I get back.