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Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Aug. 4th, 2013 08:58 pmJust had me ma visiting for the weekend. Got the call to say she'd arrived just before 6 on Friday evening; at the time I was in Linslade, standing on the main road outside Tesco's waiting for a taxi, having missed the bus by moments thanks to heavy queues at the checkout. Thankfully the cab showed up after a few minutes. After unloading the shopping I ambled over to the Heath Inn where my mother was waiting in the bar and we bought drinks and had a catch up chat. My mother considered trying the pub's famous goat curry, but we both found the lamb shank in red wine and rosemary sauce too tempting to resist.
We discussed plans for the weekend and watched a bit of telly for the rest of the evening, settling on going to Bletchley Park yesterday and Woburn Abbey today. Bletchley and the story of the codebreakers was fascinating; you really had to feel for the three Poles who first cracked the Enigma code, who found themselves unable to find intelligence work in West or East after WW2 because each side feared they might spy for the other. And, of course, for Alan Turing, who has a prominent role in the exhibitions and even has his name on the special Bletchley edition of Monopoly sold in the gift shop; the text of Gordon Brown's 2009 apology for the way he was treated is placed prominently on the wall.
Out on the lawn we heard the Victory Wartime Band, fronted by a young lady with a fine voice, perform some WW2 songs; we finished the day with a look at Colossus and a film show of 1942 Pathe News bulletins from the Middle East front.
Woburn safari park was nice - the penguins and lemurs were fun to watch and we saw a live show featuring mother and daughter sea lions, where we learned the difference between sea lions and seals - and the Abbey was interesting, even if we had to whizz round it to keep our 3.30 booking at the Duchess's Tea Rooms. Having solidly been good for the past month, it was nice to have some naughty cakes :) Went for a very refreshing peppermint tea. On our way out we stumbled across a lavish Indian wedding.
We popped back to my mother's room at the Heath for a wind-down chat and a spot of telly before saying our goodbyes. As Kirsty sang, weekends go too fast :(
We discussed plans for the weekend and watched a bit of telly for the rest of the evening, settling on going to Bletchley Park yesterday and Woburn Abbey today. Bletchley and the story of the codebreakers was fascinating; you really had to feel for the three Poles who first cracked the Enigma code, who found themselves unable to find intelligence work in West or East after WW2 because each side feared they might spy for the other. And, of course, for Alan Turing, who has a prominent role in the exhibitions and even has his name on the special Bletchley edition of Monopoly sold in the gift shop; the text of Gordon Brown's 2009 apology for the way he was treated is placed prominently on the wall.
Out on the lawn we heard the Victory Wartime Band, fronted by a young lady with a fine voice, perform some WW2 songs; we finished the day with a look at Colossus and a film show of 1942 Pathe News bulletins from the Middle East front.
Woburn safari park was nice - the penguins and lemurs were fun to watch and we saw a live show featuring mother and daughter sea lions, where we learned the difference between sea lions and seals - and the Abbey was interesting, even if we had to whizz round it to keep our 3.30 booking at the Duchess's Tea Rooms. Having solidly been good for the past month, it was nice to have some naughty cakes :) Went for a very refreshing peppermint tea. On our way out we stumbled across a lavish Indian wedding.
We popped back to my mother's room at the Heath for a wind-down chat and a spot of telly before saying our goodbyes. As Kirsty sang, weekends go too fast :(
