[bemused] Back. And what an interesting time I've had...
Shall I start with the coach? Yes. I think I'll start with the coach. It had come down from Edinburgh and was ending up in Brixham, and had been late arriving in Bristol (no, not all of its stops began with the letter B!) and the driver was on his statutory 45 minute break. As a result we were 15 minutes late leaving - annoying, but it did give me time to wonder sadly about the state of mind of the mother standing behind me who had called her little boy Cayenne (which she pronounced Kai Anne) and her little girl Killin (that's what it sounded like, anyway.) I can just imagine the crap those poor sprogs are going to take at school...
Soooo, we finally headed off, me assuming the bus would take the normal route.
No. Instead of heading for the Cumberland Basin, the driver hared off up Brandon Hill. Then took us on a non-guided tour up Whiteladies Rd, along the Downs and past the Zoo, then down Sion Hill (a hair-raising enough drive in a car). I was wondering by then if he was aiming to avoid the major watermain pipe repairs at Hotwells (the pipe cracked wide open last week and caused massive delays on the Portway/Cumberland Basin) but instead of turning right up the Portway and out to Avonmouth, he turned left, drove past all the repair work - and continued out on the Long Ashton Rd.
We were then treated to a non-guided tour of the scenic route, via Backwell and Congresbury, finally joining the southbound M5 at the Weston-super-Mare roundabout. I still have no idea why he went the long way round. Unless he suffers from vertigo and didn't want to drive over the Avonmouth Bridge. (And indeed, who could blame him? Well, me for a start...)
Then before we even got to Taunton (the first stop) we suddenly found ourselves at a standstill. On the M5. On a Monday. In bloody February. Holiday season, I might have understood it... After 15 minutes of crawling and stopping I rang Ken to ask him to check what the problem was: the RAC site reported an accident just before the Bridgwater exit which was blocking the motorway. There was an ambulance, fire engine and several police cars, and a white van, but I couldn't see much damage, so no idea what happened there. I hope it was nothing serious.
After that things went more smoothly, and we drove into Taunton in lovely sunny weather, so I started taking photos out the window.
And look! This is a rare example of a very rare species of British fauna, and I was extremely lucky to catch it!
Yes, it's a young dinosaur! A Tyrannosaurus Rex, I think, but we flashed past too quickly for me to confirm. Which might actually be just as well, as being eaten would have put something of a damper on the holiday...

As we reached Devon the clouds - "heavy, dark and pendulous" - appeared ahead, becoming darker all the time, until it was bucketing down.

It does that quite a lot in Devon, if I remember rightly.


We eventually arrived in Exeter nearly an hour late. There are times I am quite grateful for my mobile phone...
Wendy arrived at 6.15. We had a somewhat wet drive down to Torquay, but the roads were quiet, so it wasn't too bad. I don't think I've ever seen Tor Bay at night, so the really pretty promenade lights took me a little by surprise - they stretch right along the bay, from Torquay to Brixham. Really lovely. The tide was coming in, but it was a little chilly to paddle. (Actually, the wind was very cold, even for me, and picked up more while we were in the theatre, so we didn't dawdle getting back to the car, although I'd have liked to wander out to the end of the pier. Maybe next time.)
And the show? [big evil grin] It was brilliant. Well, mostly brilliant. I felt that the actors/singers playing Janet, Brad, Magenta and Columbia could have been considerably more expressive, but their performance was more than made up for by Rocky (Sergio Priftis), Riff-Raff (Matt Harrop), and the deliciously lascivious Frank 'N' Furter (David Bedella, who also played Satan in the Jerry Springer opera-thing, and who enjoyed strutting about the stage in fishnet stockings and basque entirely too much, methinks [even bigger evil grin]) A lot of the audience had dressed up, but the theatre had very strict rules about not throwing anything - in fact, they had black binbags at the doors, and were confiscating all the confetti, waterpistols etc (that sounds awfully school-teacherish: actually everyone was very good about it. But it did mean there wasn't as much audience participation as there might otherwise have been. Oh well.)
The audience age range staggered me. One woman had taken her young (I mean younger than Kai!) daughters along, a move I'm not sure was wise given the graphic raunchiness of the Janet/Frank - Brad/Frank bed scenes. There were also people there who must have been in their 60s at least (and more power to 'em, say I!) But everyone had a rollicking good time, and at the end, as I'd bet Wendy, we all did the Time Warp - yes, me too. There was just about enough room between the rows to dance on the spot!
[happy sigh] It was a fantastic evening. A big 'THANK YOU' to our hosts David (who was in a really good Riff-Raff costume) and Maia of TIP, and to Wendy for the transport that made it possible, for a wonderful time!
I slept well - had the second guest room at the folks' this time, a lovely cool room so I didn't need to open the window, so didn't hear the traffic, so wasn't disturbed by ludicrously early buses.
We went to The Red House in Whipton Village for lunch (early birthday treat!): wonderfully tasty carvery. I had roast pork and roast beef with all the trimmings - delicious. Then a quick trip down to Fore Street to check out the read and return bookshop (still there, though not as good as when I was at college), bought the Indiana Jones boxed DVD set (an incredible £19 in Woolworths!) and to meet Sarah in a nice little café, Streets in the City Arcade.
It was very good to chat. If you're reading, Sarah, all the best with the exams!
[Later edit - Sarah is the friend who sent us the Constellations game.]
The trip back went a lot more smoothly than the trip down (and going over the Avonmouth Bridge in the dark, in the rain, with Muse's Exo Politics blasting in one's ears is, I think, the best way to enjoy the experience.) I had an exceptionally good taxi driver, who took a short cut through the Broadmead backstreets and got me home far quicker and cheaper than anyone else has (and got a nice big tip because of it). Quyn was overjoyed to see me, Argent happy, and Raptor just wanted to be fed. I'm sure she'll come for a cuddle later.
I finally got MailWasher up and running - honestly, I've only been gone two days and the amount of bloody spam I've received crashed the software five times. And Kai and Ken have been fine: Ken cooked pork loin chops for them this evening, which is one of Kai's favourites - and I notice steak and mushrooms in the fridge, and some tiramisu, so I think I may be enjoying a Valentine's Day steak dinner. Better wrap Ken's present and write his card before I forget...
Work tomorrow. [sigh]

It's actually from one of the Bridgwater Carnival floats. There are two camels a little further back, a mother and child that have been there for quite a long time now...Back